Sweden’s prime minister Kristersson to resign after left-leaning opposition narrowly wins election

STOCKHOLM (AP) — Sweden’s left-leaning opposition won a narrow majority in the country’s national election, a complete vote count showed on Thursday.

The Swedish Election Authority said the four opposition parties won 176 seats in the 349-seat Riksdag, Sweden’s parliament, in Sunday’s election. The four parties that make up or support the outgoing conservative-led government took 173 seats.

Center-right Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson posted a letter on X shortly after the final results were announced, saying he would resign from his position as the head of government.

Magdalena Andersson, the opposition leader and a former prime minister, said that “the Swedish people have voted for a new direction for our country, voted for cohesion and against division,” Swedish news agency TT reported.

It was not immediately clear exactly what government NATO’s newest member will get for the next four years. Sweden, a country of about 10.6 million inhabitants, is also a member of the European Union.

Andersson hopes to regain the prime minister’s job, which she lost in 2022. Her center-left Social Democrats finished as the biggest single party with 99 seats, despite losing eight seats.

But she will still face a complicated task to turn the result into a government because of tensions within the left-leaning bloc.

The opposition’s small lead was initially uncertain but was confirmed after early votes that didn’t arrive at polling stations by Election Day, including overseas ballots, were counted.

Kristersson has led Sweden with a three-party, center-right coalition. The parliamentary majority relied on outside support from the Sweden Democrats, an anti-immigration party that has far-right roots but has moved toward the political mainstream.

Kristersson had held out the prospect of Cabinet seats for the Sweden Democrats this time, if the governing coalition won. However, it was a disappointing election for the Sweden Democrats, who dropped into third place behind the outgoing prime minister’s Moderates and took 62 seats, 11 fewer than in the last parliament.

Andersson faces the task of overcoming differences in the opposition bloc. The Center Party, which aligned with the left because it does not wish to govern with the Sweden Democrats, also doesn’t want to go into government with the Left Party at the other end of the spectrum.

Any combination across the traditional right-left division would also be complicated. But there is broad political consensus in Sweden on several major issues, such as support for Ukraine and the decision to join NATO, whose 32nd member it became in 2024.