Sweden Election Too Close to Call as Far Right Loses Ground
9 sources across 8 countries · 1 of them is linked to a state
Who reported this
- ANSA
- Corriere della Sera
- Politico Europe
- La Tercera
- Telex
- Al Jazeera
- El Pais
- Taipei Times
- The Guardian
What the colours mean
- Left
- Centre-left
- Centre
- Centre-right
- Right
- A hatched block means the outlet is affiliated with, or controlled by, a state.
Political lean describes where an outlet sits within the politics of its own country. It is never a position on a single global scale.
Political lean is comparable inside one country and not across them, which is why the bar groups by country first. Publicly funded broadcasters are not marked as state-linked.
The owner of each outlet is listed as a matter of record, not as a judgement about the outlet.
Sweden's general election remains too close to call as the center left opposition bloc holds a narrow lead over the incumbent center right government. With approximately 95 percent of votes counted, the opposition bloc led by Magdalena Andersson is projected to hold 176 seats in the 349 seat parliament, while the coalition led by Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson holds 173. Final results are not expected until the weekend, following the count of overseas and early ballots on Wednesday.
In a significant shift, the far right Sweden Democrats saw their support drop for the first time since entering parliament in 2010. The party garnered between 17.5 and 17.9 percent of the vote, down from over 20 percent in 2022. Analysts suggest this decline may be due to other parties absorbing the Sweden Democrats' core policies on immigration and crime, thereby removing the party's monopoly on those issues.
Despite the narrow lead, forming a government is expected to be difficult due to ideological divisions. Magdalena Andersson's bloc includes the Social Democrats, the Left Party, the Greens, and the Center Party. However, the Center Party has expressed reluctance to work with the far left, while the Left Party seeks ministerial positions. On the other side, Prime Minister Kristersson's Moderate Party remains the largest in the right wing bloc, but he faces the challenge of maintaining a coalition that relies on the Sweden Democrats.
Parliament is scheduled to meet on September 28, with a vote for prime minister possible as early as September 29. If four prime minister candidates are rejected, a new election will be automatically triggered. Previous government formations in Sweden have taken between 37 and 134 days.
How each side framed it
- Centre-left
- These outlets emphasized the retreat of the far right as a victory for progressivism and a sign that the far right's influence is waning.
- Centre
- These reports focused on the tactical role of small parties and the logistical difficulty of cobbling together a stable coalition.
- Centre-right
- These sources framed the result as a reflection of a deeply divided country and noted that the center left's victory lacks a clear mandate.
Sources
- Centre ANSA: Andersson 'ready to govern', but the vote splits Sweden
- Centre-left Al Jazeera: Sweden election is too close to call as far right loses ground
- Centre-right Corriere della Sera: Sweden, the lost monopoly on immigration. And for the first time the far-right drops
- Centre-left El Pais: Why is the far right falling in Sweden while advancing in Europe?
- Centre-right La Tercera: Sweden: opposition victory without an unequivocal mandate in a divided country
- Centre Politico Europe: Meet the most powerful woman in Sweden
- Centre-left Taipei Times: Sweden’s election too close to call
- Centre Telex: Only one thing is certain in Sweden after the extremely close election: the wind has been taken out of the far right's sails
- Centre-left The Guardian: Sweden’s political parties launch coalition talks as both blocs try to secure power
100% of the statements in this article were traced back to the source articles listed above.