Sweden's election

No major surprises compared to surveys prior to the election and no clear winners opens for a dramatic week ahead. 

  • Sweden's election
    The Greens lost votes as did the Moderate party along with the Social Democrats. The governing center-left lost a bit less than expected, mostly due to the left party growing. Both the Christian Democrats and the Liberals gained compared to the election four years ago but the main winner in terms of votes, as projected, are the Sweden Democrats.

  • This is what the outcome looks like late Sunday evening (with 85% of the vote counted), Swedish time, with change from the last election and expected parliamentary seats in parenthesis
    Socialdemokraterna (The Social Democrats): 28.4% (-2.8, 100)
    Moderaterna (The Moderate party): 19.8% (-3.5, 70)
    Sverigedemokraterna (Sweden democrat): 17.6% (+4.7, 63)
    Centerpartiet (The Center party): 8.6% (+2.4, 31)
    Vänsterpartiet (The Left party): 7.9% (+2.2, 28)
    Kristdemokraterna (Christian Democrats): 6.4% (+1.8, 23)
    Liberalerna (The Liberals): 5.5% (+0.1, 19)
    Miljöpartiet (The Greens): 4.3% (-2.4, 15)

  • No clear winner among the blocs. The moderate leader, Ulf Kristersson has, however, requested the resignation of the present PM Stefan Löfven (s).

  • The center-right Alliance bloc (The Moderate, Center, Liberal and Christian Democrat parties) would hold 142 seats and the center-left (Social Democrats, the Left and the Greens) 143. The Swedish Parliament, Riksdagen, has 349 seats so the likelihood of either of the blocs being able to find a majority to legislate is slim, to say the least, leaving the Sweden Democrats in a pivotal position.

  • With none of the parties showing any willingness to leave earlier bloc politics, all is set for a dramatic couple of weeks before a new - once again - minority government can take a seat at Rosenbad (the government building in Stockholm). Unless of course either of the large, established parties, which have earlier vowed not to cooperate with the Sweden Democrats, changes their views on the far-right SD or, best case, decides to broaden earlier alliances. Neither is at present a likely scenario - quite possibly at the voters' and the nation's expense.

  • Prime Minister Löfven in his speech late Sunday evening confirms he will stay on and has no plans to resign. It will be "government as usual" albeit without any major policy decisions until Riksdagen opens in two weeks. He also expressed a wish for bloc politics to disappear after the election is now over.