No clear winners in Sweden

September 9th ‘s Swedish general election saw the surge of the Sweden Democrats (SD), although not as strong as polls predicted and not nearly what the party leader Jimmie Åkesson said on election day. Far from the 25-30% and being the biggest party in Parliament, their 17.6 %, up from 13%, was almost a failure. The SD are a racist party with its roots in neo-Nazi politics.

The two governing parties, the Social Democrats and the Greens, lost more than 5%. The Social Democrats had the worst result in almost 100 years, although their 28.4% was a lot better than the polls predicted. It’s clear that both parties have been punished for refusing to make a clear break with neo-liberalism.

The main rightwing party, the Moderates, were the biggest loser, scoring slightly less than 20%, and the rightwing "Alliance", composed of 4 parties, got a little less than the government parties.

The Left party, went up 2.2%, nowhere near the 10-11% the polls indicated, and not enough to counter the Social Democratic and Green losses. The Left party has been in a technical alliance with the government and has been instrumental in advancing some leftist demands.

Since neither the government nor the "Alliance" have a majority in Parliament the coming weeks - and possibly months - will see a lot of power-broking, although no form of stable government is in sight.