Stockholm, Sweden – On Sunday, Swedes will vote in a knife-edge general election that could see it either usher in a left-wing coalition or take a step even further to the right and welcome the Sweden Democrats, a party with neo-Nazi roots, into government for the first time. Once a political pariah, the party has become the greatest force on the right and has already helped shape government policy from beyond the cabinet. Now, Moderate Party leader and Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson wants to bring it formally into power.
Opposing them is a centre-left bloc led by Social Democrats leader Magdalena Andersson, which has been leading in the polls, although the gap has been narrowing in recent weeks. Sweden’s four left-bloc parties now have support of between 49.3 and 50.8 percent, according to the surveys conducted by the Ipsos, Demoskop and Indikator Opinion polling firms, while support for the coalition government and the Sweden Democrats stands at 47.6 to 49 percent, according to polls released by Swedish Radio and dailies Aftonbladet and DN. Advance voting has been running since August 26.
Sunday, however, is the official election day when polling stations will open at 8am ( ) and close at 8pm ( ). Swedes are voting in three elections on the same day: one for members of the national parliament, one for the regional council and one for the municipal council. On the right are the governing Moderates, the Christian Democrats and the Liberals, as well as the Sweden Democrats, who have propped up the government from outside since all four parties signed an agreement in 2022.
On the left are the Social Democrats, the Left Party and the Greens, with the Centre Party a possible fourth. Swedish politics has traditionally been built around coalition-building, compromise and minority governments rather than one party winning outright. Governments do not need a majority of seats to take office, but they won’t survive in parliament unless smaller parties form agreements within blocs.
A number of issues are on voters’ minds ahead of this election. Immigration remains one of the defining issues in Swedish politics, and a major reason the Sweden Democrats have gone from political pariah to kingmakers. Analysts say the 2015 refugee crisis, when an estimated 1.3 million asylum seekers arrived in Europe, handed the party a major opportunity.
In Sweden alone, 163,000 arrived – the highest annual figure in the country’s history and the largest per capita intake in the European Union. According to Sweden’s annual SOM (society, opinion and media) survey, immigration became the single most important issue for 53 percent of Swedish voters almost overnight that year. As a result, Sweden has dramatically tightened its migration policy since the crisis, with asylum numbers now far below their peak.
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