The election is one of the closest in Sweden’s recent history and offered voters a difficult choice between electing a new left-wing government or allowing far-right ministers to come to power for the first time. Swedish public broadcaster SVT called elections for Andersson’s party on Wednesday night. His Social Democrats are Sweden’s largest party and have enjoyed flexible support from three other opposition parties that are seen as their potential coalition partners: the Greens, the Center Party and the Left Party. Kristersson’s conservative moderates have been campaigning alongside the far-right, anti-immigration Christian Democrats, liberals and Swedish Democrats. His allies do not expect him to admit defeat until Andersson wins a vote in parliament to show he can win a majority. That vote will not occur before September 29 at the earliest. Coalition negotiations will begin in earnest once the final outcome is confirmed. In theory, any combination of parties can form a government, but in reality, the two-bloc system is likely to remain, meaning Andersson will seek to govern with some or all of his left-wing partner parties. Andersson’s Social Democrats have 99 seats, and their most natural allies, the Greens, have 22. But that still leaves her 54 seats short of a majority and with a potentially difficult task of persuading the other two parties in her bloc to cooperate with each other. The Left Party, which has a historic association with the communists, is emboldened by increasing its number of seats in this election to 30. And it has said that the price of supporting a government will be gaining ministers within the new top team.
