Center-left bloc leads in Swedish elections, polls show

Sweden's center-left parties, which support Social Democrat leader Magdalena Andersson for prime minister, won 51,3 percent of the vote in today's parliamentary elections, an exit poll by SVT television showed.

A separate poll by TV4, conducted on election day, also showed the center-left in the lead, Reuters reports.

If the center-left's advantage is confirmed by official results, it would halt Sweden's recent shift to the right, away from its liberal traditions, in an election that many analysts saw as a kind of referendum on the Sweden Democrats, a party with roots in neo-Nazi fringe circles.

Although they often give a good indication of the final outcome, exit polls in Sweden have not always been accurate. In the 2022 election, an exit poll predicted a victory for Magdalena Andersson's bloc, but the right-wing coalition led by Ulf Kristerson, the current Prime Minister of Sweden, ultimately won.

After the exit polls were released, celebrations erupted at the rallies of the center-left parties, while silence fell among the far-right Sweden Democrats. Exit polls indicate their weaker performance after increasing their share of the vote in several consecutive elections.

"If it stays like this, Magdalena Anderson will become the prime minister of our country," Social Democrats Secretary General Tobias Baudin told SVT after the exit poll results were released.

According to an exit poll by SVT, the center-left bloc would win 183 parliamentary seats, above the 175 needed for a majority, while right-wing parties would win 166 seats.

"There is a desire for some kind of change," said Mari Demker, a professor of political science at the University of Gothenburg.

"How that change will work given the different red lines that these parties have set - that is a concern for tomorrow."

Many Swedes have expressed concern about Kristersson's push for strict immigration restrictions, and his election promise to bring the Sweden Democrats into government was a step too far for them, Reuters writes.

"This is not what we hoped for, but these are not the final results, so we will have to wait and see," Sweden Democrats deputy leader Henrik Vinge told TV4.

"There is usually a certain drop in support when you are part of a ruling coalition," he said.

Kristerson, who had lagged in opinion polls during his four years in power, closed the gap in the final weeks of the campaign, while Anderson and her Social Democrats lost support.

Critics argue that Kristersson's government is undermining civil liberties while forcing immigrants to adapt more to Swedish cultural norms or leave the country, using both incentives and punitive measures, Reuters writes.

The electoral success of the Sweden Democrats would be welcomed by all the more influential far-right parties in Europe, who were further encouraged by last week's victory of the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany in elections in a German federal state.

The far right is hoping for new successes in upcoming elections across Europe, and the National Rally's fight for the presidency in France next year could represent its biggest political gain.