Sweden’s center-right parties are on course to win a narrow majority of 175 seats in the 349-seat parliament after Sunday’s parliamentary elections, defeating the center-left bloc led by the prime minister’s Social Democrats. Magdalena Anderssonto whom the Swedish electoral commission allocates 174 seats in parliament, while they about 80% of constituencies were counted.
Moderate party leader Ulf Kristersson is expected to become prime minister, while the far-right, anti-immigration Swedish Democrats are expected to become the largest right-wing party, gaining direct influence over the politics of the Scandinavian nation for the first time.
An exit poll published by the public channel SVP initially gave the victory to the center-left bloc led by Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson’s Social Democratic Party, which received the most votes, with 30.5% of the votes cast.
But as the votes were counted, the right-wing bloc, formed by the Moderate Party, the Swedish Democrats, the Christian Democrats and the Liberals, moved forward, albeit by a very small margin.
The far-right anti-immigration Swedish Democrats are set to win 20.7% of the vote, more than 3% more than in an election four years ago, making them the second political force in the Riksdag, the Swedish parliament. 19.0%
However, the final result may not be known until early Monday morning, and if the race is particularly close, the publication of the final results may not occur until the middle of the week.
At stake is a slight change in the voting of the eight main parliamentary parties, which can still determine whether the next government in Stockholm will indeed be led by the centre-right.
“SVT exit polls have always been right since they started doing them,” said Mikael Gilliam, professor of political science at the University of Gothenburg, shortly after the polls closed. “We don’t know if this will be the case this time. But if I had to put my money on someone, it would be on the left,” he added.
Another poll by the private channel TV4 initially gave the center-left parties 50.6% of the vote against 48% of the right-wing parties.
crime and immigration
The campaign was marked by themes favorable to the right-wing opposition, such as an increase in violent crime, immigration and rising energy prices.
Pediatrician Eric George, 52, has no doubt that growing populism has dominated the campaign. “I think we’re living in really turbulent times and it’s hard for people to understand what’s going on,” he told Reuters minutes before the vote.
“I fear the arrival of a repressive and far-right government,” Malin Eriksson, 53, a travel consultant, said as she left a polling station in downtown Stockholm fearful of the rise of the Swedish Democrats led by Jimmy Akesson.
With law and order dominating right-wing rhetoric, the Social Democratic Party has bet on the economy during the campaign, specifically rising energy prices and the potential hardship families and businesses may face.
“I voted for Sweden, where we continue to focus on our strengths. Our ability to collectively solve the problems of society, a sense of community and mutual respect,” said Magdalena Andersson after voting in the suburbs of Stockholm.
Andersson was finance minister for many years before becoming prime minister of Sweden about a year ago. His main rival from the very beginning was the leader of the Moderate Party, Ulf Kristersson, who considers himself the only politician capable of uniting the right and offering an alternative to the centre-left. “If the people vote for change, we will comply,” Kristersson told Reuters during one of his latest campaign rallies.
In recent years, Kristersson has strengthened ties with the Swedish Democrats, a party founded in 1988 in fascist and neo-Nazi circles with white supremacists among its founding members.
“No matter what happens tonight, the most important thing for me, for us, for all Swedish democrats across the country, is a damn 175 seats in parliament so that we can finally achieve a change of power and our pro-Swedish policy. ,” Akesson told his supporters yesterday.