That means there are only two realistic candidates to be prime minister: the incumbent, conservative Moderate party leader Ulf Kristersson; and Magdalena Andersson, the former PM who leads Sweden’s biggest party, the center-left Social Democrats.
Kristersson has run the right-wing coalition for the past four years thanks to influential support from the second biggest party, the far-right Sweden Democrats. They backed him in votes in parliament and drove policy in a hardline direction, including crackdowns on crime and especially immigration. But the Sweden Democrats did not join the coalition cabinet. That could now change.
Can the far right enter the government?
Kristersson divided opinion in 2022 when he broke a decades-long taboo against working with the far right and did his deal with the Sweden Democrats, who had won 20% of the vote. The SD was founded in the 1980s and some members in those days had roots in neo-Nazi movements. The party has taken steps to clean up its act in recent years, though not to everyone’s satisfaction.
Now Kristersson says he will give the SD ministerial seats in government if his side wins on Sunday, as part of an agreement with the far-right leader, Jimmie Åkesson. That would be another huge step for Sweden and one that the opposition has seized on.
“Of course this would be a different country with a government with half of the ministers from the Sweden Democrats,” opposition leader Andersson told AP recently. “It would not be good for Sweden if they would get the keys to the ministry of defense or the ministry of foreign affairs.”
Kristersson insists he would still be in charge overall. He points to his work with Åkesson over the past four years which he says has revived the economy and cut rates of violent crime and immigration, both of which had been major public concerns. “I can guarantee you that it will only be very skilled and experienced and people with good judgment that would be part of my government,” he told POLITICO.