Early Monday morning, Kristersson said it was still unclear who would form the next government. “Voters have expressed their opinion, but we still do not have a final result. Which government Sweden will lead in the coming years is still an open question,” he told his supporters. No major media outlet has declared a winner yet. Sweden uses a mandate-sharing voting system, a method of proportional representation for electing “mandates” or “seats” in the Riksdag, the Swedish parliament. A party needs at least 4% of the vote to enter parliament. With 95% of the votes reported, the left-wing bloc led by the Social Democrats was ahead with 176 mandates compared to 173 for the right-wing bloc. Counting will continue Wednesday before final results determine which side has a clearer path to a majority. The count is then restarted to include early votes that were submitted late, as well as votes from abroad that did not arrive before Election Day. It is not yet known how many votes will be counted on Wednesday, but in 2022, more than 220,000 votes were included in the subsequent count. If the numbers are similar this year, Wednesday’s recount could make the difference in the outcome, given that currently only about 28,000 votes separate the blocs. Sweden has two large political blocs with four right-wing and four left-wing parties, meaning coalition and minority governments are relatively common. On Sunday night, Andersson, leader of the country’s main opposition party, urged his supporters to wait for the final result, but added that if the current results hold, “Sweden will have a new government.” His party, the Social Democrats, have been a major force in Swedish politics since the end of World War II. 1980s, it had been shunned for years until 2022, when it became the country’s second-largest party after campaigning on violent crime and immigration. Both Andersson’s party and the far-right SD have lost support, according to the first results of the count. when he entered the Riksdag. Other parties that make up the left bloc, including the Left Party, the Greens and the Center Party, have increased their support. Turnout also fell to about 80%, four points lower than in the 2022 election. After casting his vote on Sunday, Andersson laid out the choice facing the Swedish public: “Should we have a government completely dominated by the Sweden Democrats, something that has never happened before in Sweden? Or should we have a government led by me, leading Sweden in a new spirit of cooperation?” Kristersson, for his part, said it was important for him and his alliance to be able to continue their work. “I think there is a genuine enthusiasm to be able to continue our important work,” he said after casting his vote in his home municipality of Strangnas. National security, gang crime and welfare spending dominated the election campaign.
