Sweden Votes on Sept. 14 as Sweden Democrats Seek First Cabinet Posts
Updated
Updated · CBS New York · Sep 11
Sweden Votes on Sept. 14 as Sweden Democrats Seek First Cabinet Posts
3 articles · Updated · CBS New York · Sep 11
Summary
Sunday's election could bring the Sweden Democrats into government for the first time after years of backing Ulf Kristersson's cabinet from outside.
47.6% support for Kristersson's right bloc versus 50.8% for the center-left in an Indikator Opinion poll shows a knife-edge race over whether the party gains ministerial posts.
The Sweden Democrats, in parliament since 2010 and Sweden's second-largest party since 2022, have moved from extremist roots toward the mainstream under Jimmie Åkesson.
163,000 asylum applications in 2015 and years of gang violence helped push immigration and crime to the center of politics, even as asylum inflows hit their lowest since 1985 and shootings fell from 391 in 2022 to 158 in 2025.
For Sweden, NATO's newest member, the vote tests how far a country long defined by liberal immigration and political isolation of the far right has shifted.