Sweden votes in elections marked by crime, energy crisis
Opinion polls show that Social Democrat Prime Minister Andersson’s center-left and right-wing blocs are neck and neck in the election marked by crime and the cost of living crisis.
Swedes are voting in an election that pits the incumbent centre-left Social Democrats against a right-wing bloc that has embraced the anti-immigration Sweden Democrats in a bid to win back power after eight years in opposition.
Uncertainty is high over Sunday’s election, with both blocs facing long and tough negotiations to form a government in a polarized and emotionally charged political landscape. Polling stations close at 1800 GMT.
With a steadily growing number of shootings unnerving voters, campaigns have seen parties vying to be the toughest on gang crime.
Meanwhile, rising inflation and the energy crisis in the wake of the conflict in Ukraine have increasingly come into focus.
Opinion polls show that the center-left is running neck and neck with the right-wing bloc, where the Sweden Democrats appear to have recently overtaken the Moderates as the second largest party after the Social Democrats.
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Sweden’s municipal, parliamentary and regional elections take place every four years on the second Sunday in September. Up to 7.5 million Swedes are expected to go to the polling booths on September 11. Here is our film on the subject! pic.twitter.com/ndUXo14l3c
— Sweden (@Sweden) September 6, 2022
Andersson vs Kristersson
Gathering economic storm clouds when households and companies face sky-high power prices can boost the Social Democratic Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson.
“My clear message is: during the pandemic, we supported Swedish companies and households. I will act in exactly the same way again if I receive your renewed trust,” she said this week in one of the final debates before the vote.
Andersson was finance minister for many years before becoming Sweden’s first female prime minister a year ago. Her main rival is the leader of the Moderates, Ulf Kristersson, who sees himself as the only one who can unite the right and depose her.
“We will prioritize law and order, make it profitable to work and build new climate-smart nuclear power,” Kristersson said in a video his party posted. — Simply put, we want to sort out Sweden.
Kristersson has spent years deepening ties with the Sweden Democrats, an anti-immigration party with white supremacists among its founders.
Jimmie Åkesson’s Sweden Democrats, which were initially rejected by all other parties, are now increasingly part of the mainstream right.
For many centre-left voters – and even some on the right – the prospect of the Sweden Democrats having a say in government policy or joining the government remains deeply unsettling, and the election is seen in part as a referendum on whether to give them that power. .
Kristersson wants to form a government with the small Christian Democrats and possibly the Liberals and only rely on the Sweden Democrats’ support in the Riksdag. But these are assurances that the centre-left does not take at face value.
Andersson, for her part, will need support from the Center and the Left, who are ideological opposites, and probably the Green Party as well, if she wants a second term as prime minister.
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Source: Reuters