Swedish left noses ahead as right teeters in tight election

Sweden's center-left bloc led the country's parliamentary election by three seats, 176 to 173, with 94% of votes counted and roughly 200,000 ballots still to be tallied by Wednesday. Former Social Democratic Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson is positioned to retake office from Moderates leader Ulf Kristersson, though both leaders were cautious, with Andersson calling for a 'new spirit of cooperation' and Kristersson saying he'd 'take it quite easy' while waiting for final numbers.

The nationalist Sweden Democrats, once the story's central character after a 2022 surge, slipped to third place with 17.5% of the vote, about three points down from their peak. The Social Democrats topped the poll at 28.1% but also lost ground, down 2.2 points, even after adopting tougher immigration and crime rhetoric that analysts trace partly to Denmark's rightward-leaning Social Democratic government.

Malmö retiree Kerstin Lagersson, undecided until election day, said she voted for the right bloc without enthusiasm, noting that decades of work abroad left her without an occupational pension and that no party addresses elderly poverty seriously. Energy policy remains a fault line for any future left coalition, with the Social Democrats open to nuclear power while their smaller coalition partners remain firmly opposed.

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