- Ruling and opposition blocs separated by only three seat, election authority says based on votes from 6,195 of 6,312 districts; final results expected no earlier than Wednesday
STOCKHOLM — Sweden’s national election results showed a narrow lead early on Monday for the center-left opposition over the right-wing government, which could halt the Nordic nation’s drift away from its liberal heritage.
The bloc, headed by the Social Democrats’ leader Magdalena Andersson, was expected to win 176 seats in the 349-seat parliament, the Riksdag, based on votes from 6,195 of Sweden’s 6,312 election districts, the election authority said.
The right-wing governing bloc of Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson was seen winning 173 seats, with ballot-counting continuing, and with final results expected to come on Wednesday at the earliest.
In a big surprise, the anti-immigration Sweden Democrats lost support for the first time since it entered parliament in 2010, with 17.7 percent of the vote according to an initial count, down from 20.5% in 2022.
“Of course it’s a bit of a disappointment that we are not the second-biggest party anymore in these polls. But it’s still not finished, it can still change,” Julia Kronlid, a Sweden Democrat member of parliament, told AFP just after exit polls had shown the party retreating.
The election, while unlikely to change the course of Sweden’s pro-Western and pro-Ukraine stance, will decide whether Kristersson’s push toward a hard-right clampdown on migration continues.
Given the closeness of the race, the winner may not be known for several days, after all overseas ballots have been counted.
In a pre-election pledge, Kristersson broke a longstanding taboo and said he would bring into government the Sweden Democrats, a far-right party with roots in the Nazi fringe, as he aims to create a majority-right coalition.
Kristersson has headed a minority coalition backed by the Sweden Democrats for four years, giving the far-right influence over policy in exchange for support in parliament.
Many voters on the right say a win would amount to an endorsement of policies that have helped to curb gang violence and cut immigration dramatically.
But some Swedes have expressed wariness, saying Kristersson’s invitation to the far right was a step too far.
“I think it will be a long night,” said Maria Malmer Stenergard, minister for foreign affairs and a member of Kristersson’s Moderate Party. “Maybe we won’t even have the results until Wednesday when the votes that have been cast abroad arrive.”
Kristersson, who has trailed in opinion polls throughout his four years in office, had been catching up in the final weeks of campaigning, with Andersson and her Social Democrats losing ground.
Critics say the Kristersson government’s immigration policies, whose incentives and penalties press migrants either to conform more closely to Swedish cultural norms or leave the country, are undermining civil liberties.
at the party’s election watch in Solna, near Stockholm, in the early hours of
September 14, 2026.
Electoral success for the Sweden Democrats would be welcomed by Europe’s ascendant far-right parties, which were bolstered by the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany’s win in a German state election last week.
The far right hopes for gains in upcoming elections across Europe, with the National Rally’s bid for the French presidency next year potentially its biggest prize.
‘Doesn’t look like Sweden’
While voting on Saturday in Rinkeby, near Stockholm, the Sweden Democrats’ longstanding leader Jimmie Akesson said the suburb, home to one of the country’s biggest Swedish-Somali populations, “doesn’t look like Sweden.”
Sweden was long one of Europe’s most welcoming countries for immigrants until Kristersson came to power four years ago. His government abolished permanent residency for refugees, tightened welfare rules and stepped up expulsions of those without a right to stay.
The Sweden Democrats acknowledge that their party was founded in part by neo-Nazis and white supremacists in the 1980s, but say they have eliminated such extremists from their ranks and have apologized for their past.
Cheers broke out at the Sweden Democrats’ election party after an updated projection from Swedish broadcaster SVT showed a much narrower gap than an initial exit poll, which had put the center-left opposition ahead with 51 percent of the vote.
“You cannot imagine how nervous I am right now. It feels like my life’s work is hanging in the balance,” said Ludvig Aspling, a member of parliament and immigration spokesperson for the Sweden Democrats. “It is going to be super tight. We still have a chance,” he said.
BY: AGENCIES
