Sweden’s ruling Social Democrats will receive support ahead of the election in September
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STOCKHOLM, June 2 (Reuters) – Support for Sweden’s ruling Social Democrats has risen to a third of voters as the public seeks stability in the midst of the war in Ukraine, an official poll showed on Thursday, but a divided parliament could make it difficult to form a government after a national election in September.
The Social Democrats, who have been in power since 2014, received 33.3% in the survey conducted by Statistics Sweden (SCB), up from 29.1% in a previous survey in November last year. It was also up from the party’s share of 28.3% in the last national election in 2018.
While the government received some criticism for its handling of the pandemic, Russia’s war in Ukraine, which prompted Sweden to apply to join NATO last month, has given it a boost.
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Support for the Social Democrats’ closest rivals, the center-right opposition Moderates, has fallen to 21.3% of voters, according to the poll, from 22.7% in the November poll. However, it is an increase of 19.8% of the vote that the party won in the 2018 election.
The center-left bloc as a whole, including the Social Democrats, led by Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson, had 51.1% support in the latest Statistics Sweden survey.
The center parties under the Moderate leader Ulf Kristersson were 46.9%.
But a complex political landscape makes the road to power after the September vote difficult to navigate.
Andersson currently runs a one-party minority government, held by the Greens, the left and the center parties.
What unites Andersson’s supporters is a desire to keep the Sweden Democrats, a populist anti-immigration party, from having any influence in the government and little else.
Kristersson can count on support from the Christian Democrats, the Liberals and the Sweden Democrats.
The Social Democrats could only form a government in 2018 after months of bargaining and in the last four years they have lost the budget vote twice. Read more
The Prime Minister – first Stefan Lofven and then Magdalena Andersson – were both forced to resign before they were reinstated after Kristersson failed to form a center-right administration. Read more
The election in September may end as a vote of 2018 – with the Social Democrats again the final winners but leading a fragile minority government.
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Reporting by Simon Johnson; Edited by Susan Fenton
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