Until recently, Sunday’s upcoming vote seemed like it would be a comfortable victory for Andersson’s Social Democrats and their political allies in smaller parties on the left. But their poll lead shrank dramatically in the past two weeks to as low as 2.6%, within the statistical margin of error.
Far-right friends
Kristersson’s center-right coalition has been governing for the past four years with the support of the far-right Sweden Democrats. He defended his decision to cooperate with a party opponents claim is too extreme despite its internal efforts to clean up its past neo-Nazi links.
“I have full respect for the fact that there are eight parties in the Swedish parliament,” said Kristersson. “None of these parties are even close to a majority of their own. If you cannot unite parties on specific topics and ambitions, then you will simply not get anything done at all.”
Under leader Jimmie Åkesson, the Sweden Democrats are in second place behind Andersson’s Social Democrats in the polls. Åkesson has said he’s eyeing up the chance of becoming prime minister at the next vote, due in 2030.
If Kristersson returns as prime minister after Sunday’s election, he has said he’s ready to give Sweden Democrat politicians roles as ministers in his government for the first time. It would be a major change for Sweden — and the left-wing bloc has campaigned against it.
Kristersson suggested that being part of a team would limit the opportunities for any individual ministers to go rogue with extremist policies.
“In Sweden, we have a collective decision-making process in government,” he said. “I would never say that one minister is not important, but every minister is part of a team that jointly makes all the decisions — so there is very little room for people to play in a role of their own.
“And since I will be the person that is forming that government, and the person that will appoint every one of them, 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.”