The dramatic election thriller in Sweden is being extended: the preliminary result of the Swedish parliamentary elections should be known on Wednesday at the earliest. Only then were the votes from abroad and late votes cast prematurely counted, the electoral authority said in the early morning of the TT news agency.
Initial forecasts initially saw Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson's left-wing camp in the lead. After about half of the votes were counted, the whole thing then tipped in favor of the conservative challenger Ulf Kristersson - also thanks to the historically strong performance of the right-wing populist Sweden Democrats.
Conservative bloc is just ahead
A provisional result was originally expected on election night. Although Kristersson's Moderates as an individual party must reckon with their weakest election result in 20 years, his conservative four-party bloc, including the right-wing populist Sweden Democrats, was 0.9 percentage points ahead of Andersson's camp after almost all votes were counted. The electoral authority saw his team at 176 mandates, Andersson's at 173.
All chairmen of the eight parliamentary parties emphasized on election night that the race was not over yet. "We don't know how this will end," said Kristersson. At the same time, he emphasized that he was ready to create a new and energetic government.
In all likelihood, he will be dependent on someone who has always been left out in elections: the leader of the right-wing populists, Jimmie Åkesson. "Today we are a really big party," he said in front of cheering party supporters. In 2010 the party received 5.7 percent of the votes - now it is likely to be 20.7 percent. For the first time, the Sweden Democrats are the second strongest force, ahead of the moderates. This gives rise to claims for Åkesson. "Our ambition is to be part of the government," he said.
Lengthy formation of government expected
Regardless of the outcome of the election, Sweden is likely to face a protracted formation of a government, as was the case after the 2018 general election. Because even within the two blocs, the parties disagree on several issues. Finding political majorities has become difficult in the Scandinavian EU country, above all due to the strengthening of the right-wing populists, who have been able to continuously increase their election results in recent years. A result beyond 20 percent will now be a record for the Åkesson party. Only the Social Democrats - the traditionally strongest party in the Scandinavian EU country - are still clearly ahead of them after gaining around 30.5 percent.
Andersson was only elected Prime Minister of Sweden in November 2021, succeeding her Social Democratic party colleague Stefan Löfven and becoming the first woman ever. Since then, the former finance minister has led a minority government made up entirely of Social Democrats, which has so far depended on the support of the liberal Center Party, the Left Party and the Greens in the Reichstag. Challenger Kristersson, meanwhile, relies on moderates, Christian Democrats and Liberals - and for the first time also openly on the support of the Sweden Democrats.
