Sweden’s center-left parties, which back the social-democrat leader Magdalena Andersson for the post of prime minister, held an initial 51.3% lead in the parliamentary elections this Sunday (13), according to an exit poll conducted by the SVT broadcaster.
The first results from Sweden’s Election Authority were expected in the coming hours. A separate poll conducted on election day by TV4 also showed the center-left in the lead.
Although exit polls are often indicative of the final result, Swedish exit polls have not always proven accurate. In 2022, for example, an exit poll projected that Andersson’s bloc would come out victorious, but the election ended up being won by a right-wing coalition led by Ulf Kristersson, who is Sweden’s prime minister today.
A right-block victory would bring the Sweden Democrats, a far-right party — with 17.2% in SVT’s polls — into government for the first time.
The vote is seen by many as a referendum on the party — a group with roots in a neo-Nazi wing — that will decide whether the Nordic country of 10.6 million people will continue its rightward turn or return to the progressivism it has long been known for.
The center-left opposition held a narrow lead over the governing right-wing bloc before the parliamentary elections, as several opinion polls showed this week.
But Kristersson, who trailed in the polls during his four years in office, has been regaining ground in the final weeks of the campaign, while Andersson and her Social Democrats lose momentum.
Critics say that Kristersson’s government is undermining civil liberties by forcing immigrants to conform more to Swedish cultural norms or to leave the country, through both incentives and penalties.
The electoral success of the Sweden Democrats would be welcomed by rising far-right parties in Europe, who are riding high after the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany won in a German state election last week.
The far-right hopes to gain ground in upcoming elections across Europe, with the National Rally’s bid for the presidency of France next year representing the biggest potential prize so far.
