Overview
- The Swedish Election Authority completed the count on Sept. 17 and gave the four opposition parties 176 of 349 seats, and Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said he would resign.
- Magdalena Andersson’s Social Democrats are positioned to lead the next government but must secure support from the Left Party, Centre Party and Greens to obtain a working majority.
- Late-arriving domestic ballots and overseas votes decided the outcome after an extremely close count that at one point showed about a 26,000-vote gap between the blocs.
- Negotiations are likely to be protracted because the Left Party is demanding ministerial posts that the liberal Centre Party opposes, making cabinet formation complex.
- The result weakens the Sweden Democrats’ influence after they lost seats, and any change to the outgoing government’s strict migration policies will depend on the compromises reached in coalition talks.