Left-wing bloc may win Sweden’s election, exit poll shows
Sweden’s left-wing opposition bloc may win the election and remove from power the government formed on the basis of the Tidö Agreement, according to the first exit poll. This was reported by The Local Sweden.
Exit poll results
According to the SVT Valu exit poll, the four parties of the left-wing bloc could jointly receive 51.3% of the vote. The right-wing bloc, according to these preliminary data, receives 46.8%. The survey is based on interviews with 10,000–15,000 voters outside polling stations.
The exit poll results still need to be confirmed after the votes are counted. If the forecast proves accurate, Social Democratic Party leader Magdalena Andersson will be able to return to power only if she reconciles the conflicting demands of the Left Party and the Centre Party or finds support from other political forces. Andersson was Sweden’s first female prime minister in 2021.
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Consequences for the right-wing bloc
Such a result, if confirmed by the vote count, would be a disappointment for Jimmie Åkesson, leader of the far-right Sweden Democrats. The party hoped to receive ministerial posts for the first time and directly control policy areas important to it, including justice, migration, culture and education.
According to The Local Sweden, after Åkesson took over the party’s leadership in 2015, the Sweden Democrats transformed from a marginal far-right force into an influential political player. The party has significant influence over the current right-wing government through representatives in government offices and a joint programme defined by the Tidö Agreement.
During the campaign, Andersson promised to substantially subsidise dental care and make sickness benefits more generous. Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, for his part, promised to provide the average family with 5,000 Swedish kronor per month through a combination of tax cuts and lower childcare fees.
