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Sweden’s left-wing opposition is on course to retake power in what would be a rare European victory for Social Democrats, according to exit polls.
The four parties on Sweden’s left are expected to win about 51 per cent of the vote against 47 per cent for the current centre-right government and the nationalist Sweden Democrats, according to exit polls on Sunday evening for TV stations SVT and TV4.
If confirmed, the result would mean the end of a government that has shifted Sweden significantly to the right, cutting asylum numbers to their lowest level in 40 years and overseeing a fall in shootings and gang crime.
Magdalena Andersson, the centre-left Social Democrat leader and favourite to become prime minister, campaigned on improving Sweden’s economy — already one of the strongest in the EU — and making the country more humane after controversies over the deportation of immigrant children.
But she will face a difficult task forming a viable coalition, with potential partners spanning from the former communists of the Left party to the Centre party, which used to form part of the centre-right.
Both exit polls forecast the first decline in support for the anti-immigration Sweden Democrats, which has roots in the neo-Nazi movement. The party made its electoral breakthrough in 2010 and had increased its influence consistently since. It was set to join a government for the first time had the right-wing bloc won.
The Moderates, the mainstream centre-right party led by Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, were in a battle with the Sweden Democrats to be the largest party on the right. Critics accused his government of focusing too heavily on law and order and not enough on the economy in the run-up to the elections.
The Social Democrats will once again be the largest party in the Swedish parliament, a position they have held for the past 109 years. But the party has struggled in recent years to gain a majority, while the centre-right has pursued large-scale privatisation of the welfare state and cracked down on crime and migration.
Andersson and party colleagues have pledged to maintain a tough line on migration and gang crime, but will face pressure from potential coalition partners on the left.
Business leaders, including industrialist Jacob Wallenberg in an interview with the FT, have expressed concern about tax proposals from the smaller left-wing parties, including wealth and bank levies.
All three of the biggest parties — the Social Democrats, Sweden Democrats, and Moderates — were forecast to have lost support from 2022, according to the exit polls.
