The far-right Swedish Democrats look set to cause a major disappointment in the country’s tense elections.
The populist anti-immigration party, which emerged from the neo-Nazi movement in the late 1980s, has increased its vote count at each of the past nine elections, and on Sunday seemed to as won 21% of the vote this year, according to the near-final results.
If it happens after a full count, they will become the country’s second largest party.
Then a block of right-wing parties, including Switzerland Democrats, are expected to defeat a leftist bloc led by Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson and form a government.
However, the results were so close that the election authority said it would not be known until Wednesday when some uncounted votes, including those from abroad, were counted.
Initial opinion polls predicted victory for the incumbent left-wing coalition, but later results suggested that the right-wing bloc could narrowly win.
Moderate Party leader Ulf Kristersson may have celebrated too soon after an exit poll said he had won. Photo: AP
Now, with 94% of votes counted, the right-wing bloc appears to be leading the ruling centre-left group led by Prime Minister Andersson by less than 1 percentage point.
Sweden’s Democratic Party leader Jimmie Akesson told his supporters at an event in Stockholm that he was “proud” to be on track to become the country’s second-largest party.
Tear away
Although his party has its roots in the white nationalist movement, years ago it began expelling extremists.
But despite the rebranding, voters have long viewed it as unacceptable and other parties shunned it.
That has changed in recent times, and experts say its results in this election show how far it has come in gaining acceptance. During the campaign, tough policies on law, order and immigration began to draw support from the center-right.
Mr. Akesson is unlikely to become prime minister even if the far-right bloc wins the largest number of seats. The four parties in the group will choose cabinet positions and moderate Party leader Ulf Kristersson is the current favorite to fill the role, but there will be a difficult line to walk between all of them. party – especially a party that has more votes than he does.
