Preliminary results are due from the Swedish Election Authority within hours, while vote counting will begin on Monday, with official results expected within a week
Sweden’s centre-left opposition bloc, which backs Social Democrat leader Magdalena Andersson for prime minister, was projected to win 51.3% of the vote in Sunday’s parliamentary election, according to an exit poll by broadcaster SVT.
The first results are in, and holy crap, this is an extremely close result so far.
We have eight main political parties, they have subdivided themselves into two blocks, with the latest numbers, the left block has a single mandate more than the right block.
Take it from us, you guys do not want a two-party system. You better rein that shit in now.
I don’t see us going down that route any time soon.
The blocks are made up of several different parties, all with their own agendas, they compete for influence within the block.
You can’t really compare the Swedish political scene with the US directly, there is a lot more complex alliances in our scene, including strategic voting, where people vote for other parties with in the same block to make sure that the block is preserved, this is encouraged as we have several smaller parties that just barely get past the 4% minimum requirement to get into the riksdag. If a party gets less than than 4% of the votes, they get no seats in the riksdag, and the seats are divided among the the other parties, this obviously means that a party that is part of a block needs the smaller parties to preserve the block’s seats and influence.
So now that we have voted the parties are working hard to form new alliances within the result, and soon the speaker of the riksdag will ask the parties to suggest a regering which is the collection of ministers that will run the government, this is where most of the strategizing comes in, to give the support in the riksdag that the blocks need the different parties have different demands, some demand to be part of the regering a and have a minister post, others give up that demand as they realize it won’t happen, and instead demand that the ruling parties in the regering will focus on their specific policies. And so on.
We have even had several minority governments, where the parties in the regering does not have a majority, yet they have been able to get the other parties to approve the regering as the others have not had a better option.
I hope this summary gives you a taste of the political climate in Sweden and why I am not really worried about a two party system.
“Center-left” is really bending the words. The party called “center”, which is part of that bloc, is very much an economic right wing party. They just draw the line at racists, which the other right wing parties do not.
I don’t trust them not to flipflop on that either. Also them calling Vänsterpartiet “extremist” is ridiculous.
It’s probably them being butt hurt for the left preventing them in couping in market rents under the social democrat government last time.
That is really all there is to it.
but the bloc backs the Social Democrats, who are very much economically left
That’s, by definition, not possible. At least depending on how we define socdem
Not if they’re anything like their Danish sister party has been for the last 20 or so years…
could you elaborate?
Sure.
When it was founded over 150 years ago, it was the most left wing national party in the country.
They continued being solidly left wing until Poul Nyrup Rasmussen took over as leader in 1992. Then followed a period of center left economic policies and permissive immigration politics.
Ever since the Fogh Rasmussen introduced spin doctors to Danish politics, though, the whole thing has been ratcheting right.
The economic policies especially took a turn under Thorning-Schmidt, and current prime minister Mette Frederiksen has REALLY turned the screws on Muslim immigrants, basically treating them like the farthest right parties did in the 90s.
from what I read, Frederiksen has also shifted the party to the left economically. she implemented earlier retirement and higher pensions—financed by increasing corporate taxes by 4% and taxing corporate real-estate appreciation—subsidized dental healthcare with a goal of completely including it in free public healthcare, taxed carbon at $40–$100 per ton (incl. agriculture), and campaigned on free public transport (no fare) for those <22. she also campaigned on some wealth tax this year, which is what gave me the impression, but chickened it out for the liberals.
she considers anti-immigration as being economically left as well due to being cheap labor for capitalists that displace unionized workers, which … is another reason why I hate economists, all of which reduce humans to statistics. but even excluding the anti-immigration, it seems economically left to me.
from what I read, Frederiksen has also shifted the party to the left economically
She really hasn’t, no.
she implemented earlier retirement and higher pensions
For select professions only, after unsuccessfully trying to make the work week longer for EVERYONE to ensure that nebulous “growth” that Neoliberals and Conservatives alike are so obsessed with to the detriment of those areas of society that are already the most underfunded.
financed by increasing corporate taxes by 4% and taxing corporate real-estate appreciation
That one slipped by me, though, that’s an excellent step in the right direction! Tiny, but still excellent.
subsidized dental healthcare with a goal of completely including it in free public healthcare
That one’s true, but a concession to the left wing of her coalition so they’d accept her continuing as Prime Minister rather than something she ever wanted herself.
taxed carbon at $40–$100 per ton (incl. agriculture)
That’s a good start too.
campaigned on free public transport (no fare) for those <22.
Another concession to the Left, specifically an important policy for SF (Socialist People’s Party by name, but long since more of a social democratic party picking up the voters the nominal Social Democrats left behind when they drifted right)
she also campaigned on some wealth tax this year, which is what gave me the impression, but chickened it out for the other liberals
Fixed it for you.
she considers anti-immigration as being economically left
Which is some demagogue nonsense leading to a lot of unnecessary hardship for the people in general, not just the immigrants directly targeted.
due to being cheap labor for capitalists that displace unionized workers
The left wing solution to which is to help the immigrant workers being exploited and penalize the employers exploiting them.
Hurting immigrants to (pretend to) help unions is some of the most insidious and harmful demagoguery ever.
is another reason why I hate economists, all of which reduce humans to statistics
And often misrepresent the statistics too. Immigrants (especially those on political/humanitarian asylum) are a huge net POSITIVE for the host economy, most of all low income people.
excluding the anti-immigration
No thanks. Immigrant lives matter.
it seems economically left to me.
It mostly isn’t, though.
As I’ve conceded above, her economic policy hasn’t been UNIVERSALLY bad/right wing, but most of it has been and continues to.
a search (a.k.a. well-sourced passages from Wikipedia) claims Sweden’s socdems’ (not to be confused with Swedish Democrats) position on immigration has not changed
Fair enough. Being Danish myself, I know much less about them than I do about the Danish ones.
deleted by creator
No. They even admit in their advertising that they’re economically right but just a little less than the other right wing parties.
Aw shit !
It’s now at 175-174 in favour of the left/centre, with a gap of about 0.1%. It may take a few days and the counting of postal votes to determine who actually won.
The margins are currently smaller as the actual counting has started, to everyone’s great dismay.
vote counting will begin on Monday, with official results expected within a week
Interesting, many other countries offer official preliminary results on the same day and end results within days. Not that either is obviously better.
Evidently the Swedes feel no need to rush.
There is an official (as in published by the ministry of elections) preliminary count: https://resultat.val.se/val2026
