STOCKHOLM, September 13 — Sweden’s general election, held on Sunday, September 11, 2022, was one of the closest in the country’s history, with the two main blocs effectively tied in the final weeks of polling. All 349 seats in the Riksdag, Sweden’s unicameral parliament, were up for election. The vote pitted the center-left bloc, led by incumbent Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson of the Social Democratic Party, against a right-wing bloc of four parties: the Moderate Party, the Christian Democrats, the Liberals, and the Sweden Democrats.
The central question was whether the right-wing bloc would win a parliamentary majority — and whether the Sweden Democrats would be brought into government or instead provide external support to a Moderate-led administration.
A party with uncomfortable roots
The Sweden Democrats, a nationalist and anti-immigration party with roots in the neo-Nazi movement, were polling at roughly 20 percent, making them potentially the second-largest party in the Riksdag. The party was founded in 1988, entered parliament in 2010 with 5.7 percent of the vote, and grew to 17.5 percent in the 2018 election. Under the Swedish constitution, the Riksdag has 349 seats: 310 fixed constituency seats and 39 adjustment seats allocated to ensure proportionality.
A party must receive at least 4 percent of the national vote, or 12 percent in a single constituency, to enter parliament.
Dominance under pressure
The Social Democrats have dominated Swedish politics since the 1930s, holding the prime minister’s office for most of the post-war period. Andersson became Sweden’s first female prime minister in November 2021 after Stefan Löfven resigned. The 2022 campaign was dominated by immigration, gang violence, healthcare, energy prices, and the war in Ukraine, which prompted Sweden to apply for NATO membership in May 2022.
Voter turnout in Swedish general elections is traditionally high, exceeding 80 percent; in 2018 it was 87.2 percent. Final results were expected to be confirmed by the Swedish Election Authority in the days after the vote, with the new Riksdag convening and the speaker nominating a prime minister.
The outcome could mark a significant shift in Swedish politics, potentially ending the Social Democrats’ long-standing dominance and giving the far right unprecedented influence over government policy. The story was developing as votes were counted, and no final result was available at the time of publication.
