Europe's far-right wave stalled in Sweden... Center-left coalition predicted to win a majority in the general election

[Financial News] In the Swedish general election held on the 13th (local time), an opposition coalition composed of center-left parties was predicted to have won a majority of the vote.
According to foreign media outlets such as the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), exit polls by Sweden's public broadcaster SVT showed that the center-left coalition led by the Swedish Social Democratic Party won 51.3% of the vote, surpassing the ruling right-wing coalition, which garnered only 46.8%.
Another broadcaster, TV4, also predicted a victory for the left-wing camp, forecasting that the left-wing coalition would win 51.3% of the vote and the right-wing coalition 47%.
The left-wing camp, led by former Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson, leader of the Swedish Social Democratic Party, pledged to expand public spending, strengthen welfare, and support households suffering from rising prices.
The right-wing coalition led by incumbent Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson put combating organized crime, tightening immigration controls, and cutting taxes at the forefront.
Prime Minister Kristersson has focused during his tenure on improving public security and curbing the influx of migrants, as Sweden, which accepted a large number of migrants when the refugee crisis caused by the Syrian civil war peaked 10 years ago, struggled to integrate them and organized crime became rampant.
In particular, Prime Minister Kristersson drew attention by declaring that if the right-wing coalition won the general election, he would form a coalition government with the far-right Sweden Democrats, a party previously considered taboo, and include Sweden Democrats members in the cabinet.
For this reason, the election was viewed as a de facto referendum on the coalition relationship between the current ruling right-wing government and the far-right party.


Attention was focused on whether the far-right party, which has been rising into the mainstream in major European countries such as Germany and Paris, France, by campaigning on an 'anti-immigrant' platform, could maintain its momentum in Sweden, long regarded as one of the most progressive countries in the West.
However, the Sweden Democrats appeared to have lost momentum, securing only 17.2% of the vote in SVT exit polls, below its result from four years earlier. Four years ago, the Sweden Democrats caused a sensation by winning 20.5% of the vote and emerging as Sweden's second-largest party after the Swedish Social Democratic Party.
Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported that a somber mood had settled over the Sweden Democrats following the unexpected results; the party had shown a steady rise in its general election vote share since first entering parliament in 2010.
Meanwhile, cheers erupted at the Swedish Social Democratic Party, which had lost power to the right-wing coalition four years earlier, after the exit polls were released. The party was predicted to become the largest vote-getter, with 28.4%. If the victory is confirmed, former Prime Minister Andersson is expected to rally the center-left coalition and begin forming a coalition government.
Meanwhile, in the Swedish general election, the center-left coalition had led by about 10 percentage points until the middle of last month, but the right-wing coalition mounted a fierce late-campaign comeback, making a neck-and-neck race likely.

[email protected] Lee Seok-woo, International Specialist Reporter