Swedish left noses ahead as right teeters in tight election

Sweden’s left wing leads slightly, 176 parliamentary seats to 173, but the Nordic country must wait until Wednesday for a complete national result.MALMÖ, Sweden (CN) — Sweden’s right-wing government is on the rocks as Parliament election results project center-left opposition leading narrowly by three seats, with 94% of the vote tallied Monday.However, with only 28,000 votes separating the two blocs and 200,000 votes to be counted by Wednesday, there is swing potential.The left bloc, pointing at former Social Democratic Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson to retake office, is leading the race by a small margin, occupying 176 out of 349 possible mandates. Her bloc’s victory looked certain for a long time just until a month ago.Sweden’s current right-flank government coalition, led by center-right Moderates leader and Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, can count 173 mandates so far. Similar to other countries in the European Union, Sweden has recently turned toward right-wing politics by limiting immigration and pushing for tough crime punishment.Energy production has also divided the blocs, as Swedish right-wing parties see nuclear production as a solution to reducing CO2 emissions, while the left focuses more on sun and wind as sustainable energy sources.One Swede who voted for the right flank is a Malmö resident and retiree, Kerstin Lagersson. She was unsure which bloc to vote for until Sunday’s election day, because a new government wouldn’t make much of a difference for her.“I don’t have any great hopes,” said Lagersson. “I don’t give a damn about who ends up in government, because no one cares about pensioner issues.”Issues surrounding public school policy, immigration, integration and crime punishment have dominated the election campaign too much, she said, to a point where Sweden’s elderly were sidelined.“There is no one who addresses pension issues in a really sensible way. I’ve worked all my life, but unfortunately, I’ve worked a lot abroad in smaller companies that haven’t paid into any occupational pensions and things like that, so I have almost no occupational pension,” she said.The Sweden Democrats, a right-wing party with neo-Nazi roots, leveraged their increasingly mainstream status to go tough on immigration and crime to tackle escalating gang criminality, which has also caused worries in other EU countries in relation to cross-border crime.Reaching its all-time high voter count in 2022 as Sweden’s second-largest party, the right-wing organization became the supporting pillar of the current government.Sunday’s election saw the Sweden Democrats win 17.5% of the total count — about 3% less than four years ago — shrinking to the third-largest party in the country behind the Moderates (19.9%).Sweden Social Democrats in Malmö trying to gain more votes to retake government power after a term on the sideline, Saturday, Sep. 12, 2026. (Lasse Sørensen/Courthouse News)The Social Democrats didn’t fare much better. Despite leading all parties with 28.1% of the vote, they dropped 2.2% from the 2022 election.“Given that it seems to be this even again, there is every reason to seek the new spirit of cooperation that I have spoken of. It would be good for Swedish politics,” Andersson told the media at midnight, not wanting to comment further until the full election result is ready.To counter the right bloc, the Social Democrats has learned toward the ruling government’s tough politics on immigration and criminality in the latest term. According to Alfred Arnborg, a Swedish analyst for Copenhagen’s Think Tank EUROPA, the rightward shirt was likely inspired by Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, who led the Danish sister party into power amid a period where former Social Democratic powerhouses are struggling across the continent.With the current distribution of Swedish mandates favoring a shift to a left-wing government, Andersson’s challenge lies in the compromises she will have to make without an overwhelming majority. One of the key areas could be energy politics.“The left bloc is deeply split. The Social Democrats are open to look at nuclear energy, even though they have questioned the current governments financial model and its low priority of offshore wind power. The cooperating left-wing partners of the Social Democrats have strong resistance against nuclear energy that runs deep in history and identity,” said Arnborg.Despite sitting in a less favorable position, Kristersson’s coalition still stands a small chance, should a couple of mandates switch his direction on Wednesday. It’s a waiting game until then.“I intend to take it quite easy. Then I intend to have a number of conversations. We have a stable government in place that can solve all the problems we have right now. And then I will come back when I see any opportunities to move forward,” Kristersson said Monday morning.Courthouse News correspondent Lasse Sørensen is based in Copenhagen, Denmark.Subscribe to our free newslettersOur weekly newsletter Closing Arguments offers the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world, while the monthly Under the Lights dishes the legal dirt from Hollywood, sports, Big Tech and the arts.Additional Reads