Sweden’s extreme right makes big gains in cliff-hanger
Sweden yesterday began a days-long wait for the final outcome of a too-close-to-call parliamentary election, with an unprecedented right-wing and far-right bloc in position to wrest power from Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson’s Social Democrats.
The Scandinavian country has seen increasing political instability in recent years as the gradual rise of the far-right has upset the traditional balance of power in parliament.
Sweden once again found itself in a delicate parliamentary situation after Sunday’s parliamentary election, where the right was seen to have a razor-sharp lead over Andersson’s departing left-wing bloc.
“The close result in the Riksdag indicates that Sweden is on its way to another messy mandate,” wrote the reference newspaper Dagens Nyheter yesterday.
Election authorities said a final result would not be clear until tomorrow, when the last ballots from abroad and from advance voting had been counted.
Aftonbladet editor Anders Lindberg told AFP it seemed “impossible for the left to win because the votes from abroad are… usually for the right”.
With 95% of the votes counted yesterday, the right led by conservative Moderate leader Ulf Kristersson was credited with an absolute majority of 175 out of 349 seats in the Riksdag.
Andersson’s left block was behind with 174.
If confirmed, the Social Democrats would be looking at eight years in power.
Kristersson, who promised during the campaign to crack down on law and order amid soaring crime rates, said he was “prepared to build a new and strong government”.
The election’s big winner, however, was the anti-immigration, nationalist Sweden Democrats party led by Jimmie Åkesson.
It was credited with 20.6% of the vote, making it the largest party on the right and the second largest in the country after the Social Democrats.
“It’s looking bloody good now,” 43-year-old Akesson told jubilant supporters late Sunday.
The right-wing bloc — consisting of the Sweden Democrats, the Moderates, the Christian Democrats and the Liberals — was seen to win 49.7%.
The Left, consisting of the Social Democrats, the Left, the Greens and the Center parties, was credited at the same time with 48.9%.
Prime Minister Andersson, 55, has refused to throw in the towel yet.
“We will not have a final result tonight,” she told supporters late Sunday as her party was seen posting a strong showing of around 30% of the vote.
She urged Swedes to “be patient” and “let democracy take its course”.
The election meant a major shift in Swedish politics.
For the first time, the Moderates, the Christian Democrats and the Liberals tied up with the extreme right, which has long been treated as “pariahs” by other political parties.
Kristersson orchestrated the change, starting preparatory talks with the Sweden Democrats in 2019 and then deepening their cooperation.
The Christian Democrats, and to a lesser extent the Liberals, later followed suit.
“Our goal is to sit in the government. Our goal is a majority government,” said Åkesson late on Sunday.
Even before the final results were in, the right began its first meetings yesterday, where both Åkesson and the Liberals’ leader Johan Pehrson were seen arriving at the Moderates’ office for separate talks.
However, the right-wing bloc is full of internal divisions and Kristersson may have to struggle to form a stable coalition government.
The Liberals have opposed the idea that the Sweden Democrats should be given government posts – a position they repeated yesterday – and prefer that they stay in the background and give informal support in the Riksdag.
Åkesson has insisted that his party must be in government, otherwise he will present a series of demands in exchange for his support.
It may be too much for the Liberals.
“It would be enough for one of the Liberals’ extreme right-wing members of parliament to distance himself for Ulf Kristersson’s government to end up in serious trouble,” Dagens Nyheter wrote yesterday.
Political analyst Ulf Bjereld agreed.
A Kristersson-led government “will have to deal with very strong internal tensions and some liberals will demand that they start cooperating with the Social Democrats instead,” he told AFP.
The Sweden Democrats “have their roots in neo-Nazism and, on the other hand, the liberals stand for everything that the Sweden Democrats don’t do,” he added.
Analysts stressed that Sweden was in need of political stability amid a hectic application report in the coming months.
The country faces a looming economic crisis, is in the middle of a historic and delicate NATO application process and is set to take over the EU presidency in 2023.