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The Swedish PM, Social Democrat Magdalena Andersson, announced Wednesday that she will resign tomorrow after confirming the defeat of the center-left bloc against the right-wing opposition in Sunday’s legislative elections.
With 99.7% of the electoral districts counted, the right-wing opposition won the election by three seats, 176 to 173, according to today’s tally by the Electoral Authority, which includes the overseas vote and early votes sent in on time but which did not arrive on time.
The Social Democrats, the most voted force in the last century, defended their first position and achieved 30.4 %, two points more than in 2018.
In second place was the right-wing Sweden Democrats (SD), with 20.6 %, three points more, ahead of the conservatives of the opposition leader, Ulf Kristersson, who fell seven-tenths to 19.1 %.
“Almost all the votes have been counted, but the preliminary election result is clear enough,” Andersson told a press conference.
The final result puts the opposition bloc with 49.6 % of the votes against 49 % of the center-left, and the difference between blocks goes from one to three seats, compared to the result released on Monday when the so-called “Wednesday votes” had yet to be counted.
On Monday, just over 44,500 votes separated the two blocs, which had remained cautious in recent days while awaiting a definitive result. However, the four parties of the right-wing bloc have held meetings, and the Swedish media were already speculating on the possible distribution of seats.
“Wednesday’s votes” had historically had little influence on the final result, with the exception of 1979, when they tipped the victory to the right after 8,500 ballots split the two blocs on election night.
The SD was the big winner of the elections: not only was it the force that grew the most, but it also snatched the leadership of the right-wing bloc from the conservatives, which it had held since 1979, and will have a direct influence on the formation of the government after a decade of isolation.
