Sweden’s opposition, according to preliminary data, wins election by one or three seats
In Sweden, the opposition bloc is winning the Riksdag election with a 99.9% probability, leading the government bloc by one or three parliamentary seats. YLE News reports this, citing data from Swedish Television. The final results are expected to be confirmed after a control recount of votes, which will conclude over the weekend.
During the counting of the last early votes, one parliamentary seat repeatedly shifted from the opposition to the government bloc and back again. Later, the number of counted ballots became sufficient to determine the opposition’s lead.
Losses for the Sweden Democrats
The result of the governing right-wing bloc was affected by a decline in support for the Sweden Democrats party, which YLE describes as far-right. At the same time, all three parties of the minority government — the Moderate Coalition Party, the Christian Democrats and the Liberals — increased their support. The Sweden Democrats supported this government for four years; all these parties campaigned together and promised to form a joint government if they won.
According to a Swedish Television exit poll, support for the Sweden Democrats among voters aged 18 to 21 fell by seven percentage points. Overall, the party lost more than three percentage points. The report notes that immigration was not a central issue in this campaign, while tougher approaches to fighting crime became part of the policies of all major parties.
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Discussion of government policy
One issue that sparked public debate was the so-called deportation of teenagers: these are situations in which a child in a family turns 18 and is no longer covered by their parents’ residence permit. According to Aftonbladet, there were 121 such cases last year. A poll commissioned by Göteborg Posten in spring showed that most Swedes oppose such deportations. The government and the Sweden Democrats later suspended them.
Riksdag member Tobias Andersson suggested on social network X that the election result would have been different if Sweden had not granted citizenship to several hundred thousand people during the term. At the same time, YLE emphasizes that there is no research data on the electoral behavior of new citizens.
Voter turnout, according to preliminary estimates, will be about 83%, slightly lower than in the previous election. According to Swedish Television’s election study, 73% of those who voted for the Social Democrats in the previous election supported the party again; for the Sweden Democrats, the figure was 78%.
