Sweden Election 2026: Opposition Holds Narrow Lead as Government Hangs in Balance
Sweden's left-leaning opposition leads by 176 seats to 173 with nearly 95% of districts counted, as the anti-immigration Sweden Democrats slip and the final result may not be clear until Wednesday.
Sweden may be in for a prolonged wait for a new government after preliminary election results on Monday showed a thin and still-uncertain lead for the left-leaning opposition, while a hard-right anti-immigration party saw its support slip.
With nearly 95% of districts counted, the Swedish Election Authority reported the four opposition parties heading for 176 seats in the 349-seat parliament in Stockholm, the Riksdag, against 173 for the four parties that make up or support the outgoing conservative-led government.
The outcome may not be clear until Wednesday, when early votes including overseas ballots are counted.
"Obviously it would be better for everyone if it was clear but that's democracy for you. Half wants something, half wants something else," Charlie Soederberg, a Stockholm resident, said.
Former Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson's center-left Social Democrats were set to finish as the biggest single party on about 28%, and she hopes to regain the post she lost in 2022.
Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson's Moderates have led a three-party center-right coalition since 2022 that relied on outside support from the anti-immigration Sweden Democrats, whose backing slipped to just under 18%, down about three percentage points from four years ago.
Stockholm resident Oscar Elfstrand said the outcome was "kind of expected," adding that "usually the opposition is growing a bit stronger" and that he was "not too surprised to see that the existing government loses a couple of points and the opposition gains a couple."
"In Sweden there has been a tradition of quite rapid government formations, but for the last 10 years they have turned more complicated and this will be the case this year as well," according to Ann-Cathrine Jungar, a political science professor at Södertörn University.
Jungar also noted that no major changes are expected in migration policy. "We cannot expect any major changes in terms of going back to more liberal migration policies. I think that will remain," she said, pointing to the influence populist radical right parties have had on restrictive migration policies across the Nordic states over the past two decades.