'Sweden's Centre Party is actually in a very weak bargaining position'

Sweden in Focus · Sep 16, 2026 · 17m

All three parties in the governing coalition increased their vote share while the Sweden Democrats lost ground.

On the left, meanwhile, the Social Democrats had a terrible election, while all the other parties had something to celebrate.

So why did the government parties do better than expected? What went wrong for the two biggest parties on the right and left?

And what is Sweden's next government likely to look like?

Nicholas Aylott, associate politics professor at Södertörn University, gives his views in a conversation with The Local's Richard Orange.

The skinny

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