Left-wing parties take narrow lead in Swedish election

A coalition of left-wing parties led by former Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson has taken a narrow lead in Sweden’s parliamentary elections. The majority of ballots have already been counted, but the margin between the left and right camps is so slim that it is still premature to speak of final voting results.

Following the processing of data from 98% of polling stations, Sweden’s election commission projects that the center-left bloc led by the Social Democrats will secure 176 out of 349 seats in the new Riksdag, giving them a slim majority of three mandates. Final results are expected on Wednesday.

The incumbent right-wing Prime Minister, Ulf Kristersson, had hoped to form a governing coalition that, for the first time in the country’s history, would have included the far-right Sweden Democrats—a party with neo-fascist roots.

Exit polls and early voting results showed that the gap between the two camps remained minimal. At certain points, Kristersson’s right-wing alliance even pulled ahead.

Significant differences on economic policy persist among the parties of the left-wing alliance, meaning that a potential governing coalition could prove fragile.