Sweden’s future is balanced on a knife-edge as the country awaits a final tally of the votes in Sunday’s general election, in which a loose bloc of rightwing parties led by the far-right Sweden Democrats – now the second largest party – holds the slimmest of majorities.
With 95% of the vote counted, the right bloc was on 49.7%, while four parties on the left, including the incumbent Social Democrats, stood at 49%. The final picture will come on Wednesday after the votes of Swedish citizens living abroad and those of some who voted early are counted.
The vote translates into a majority of just one seat in parliament for the rightwing parties, and in the last election, in 2018, three seats changed hands at the final count. Evidence from past elections showed no pattern in how these late votes may influence the outcome, a researcher told thelocal.sewhile the liberal daily Dagens Nyheter said its analysis suggested the right bloc had a “good chance” of maintaining its lead.
Sweden’s political mainstream contemplated the apparent failure of their strategy to adopt the Sweden Democrats’ (SD) positions on crime and immigration in an attempt to win back voters from the far right.