2026 Sweden General Election

2026 Swedish General Election (Swedish: Riksdagsvalet 2026) is the nationwide general election held on Sunday, 13 September 2026, to elect the new members of Sweden’s 349-seat parliament, the Riksdag. Simultaneously, members of 21 regional councils and 290 municipal councils were also elected across the country.^【1】 The election was contested between the four-party centre-left bloc led by Magdalena Andersson of the Social Democratic Party and the four-party centre-right bloc led by incumbent Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson of the Moderate Party, which received external support from the far-right Sweden Democrats party.^【2】 The election has been described as significant because its outcome will determine whether the Sweden Democrats will enter government directly for the first time in their party’s history.^【3】

^{2026 Swedish General Elections, 13 September 2026 - (Anadolu Agency)}

Ulf Kristersson has led a three-party centre-right coalition government since 2022, composed of the Moderate Party, the Christian Democrats and the Liberals. The government relies on the support of the Sweden Democrats (SD), a party that does not hold cabinet positions, to maintain a parliamentary majority.^【4】 The Sweden Democrats were founded in 1988. The party first entered parliament in 2010 and became the most voted party in the centre-right bloc in the 2022 elections, securing 20.5 percent of the vote.^【5】

In April 2026, Kristersson stated that if the centre-right bloc secures a parliamentary majority, the Moderate Party is prepared to include the Sweden Democrats in government. In such a scenario, the Sweden Democrats would enter government for the first time.

Magdalena Andersson became Sweden’s first female prime minister in 2021. After losing the 2022 election, she has served as leader of the opposition since then.^【6】 During the campaign, national security, gang-related crime and welfare spending emerged as the key issues.

In Sweden’s election, parties compete within two main blocs. The centre-left bloc includes the Social Democrats (S), the Centre Party (C), the Green Party (MP) and the Left Party (V).

The centre-right bloc consists of the Moderate Party (M), the Christian Democrats (KD), the Liberals (L) and the Sweden Democrats (SD).^【7】

Voting began at 08:00 local time on Sunday, 13 September 2026 and ended at 20:00 (18:00 GMT). In a country with a population of 10.6 million, approximately 8 million people are eligible to vote.

Magdalena Andersson cast her vote at a school in Nacka, south of Stockholm, alongside her husband Richard Friberg. Ulf Kristersson voted in his own municipality of Strängnäs, while Jimmie Åkesson voted on 12 September, one day before election day, in the Rinkeby district of Stockholm.

According to an update from SVT Nyheter on 14 September 2026, 6,349,715 of 8,051,259 registered voters cast valid ballots. 84,944 votes were invalid, of which 54,166 were blank. This gives a voter turnout of 80.3 percent.^【8】

With 94 percent of votes counted, the centre-left bloc received 49.5 percent of the vote and 176 seats, while the centre-right bloc received 49.1 percent of the vote and 173 seats. Thus, the centre-left bloc leads by three seats in parliament.^【9】

^{Source: SVT Nyheter, Valresultat 2026【10】}

Magdalena Andersson, in a speech to her supporters on the evening of 13 September 2026, said that if the current results are confirmed, Sweden will have a “new government”. In her remarks after voting, she stated that voters had decided the direction of the country’s future and that the election represented a choice between a government led by her with cooperation-based governance and one led by the Sweden Democrats with decisive influence in government.

Ulf Kristersson, in a statement on the morning of 14 September, said that voters had made their decision but that no final result had yet been determined. Kristersson emphasized that it was still unclear which government would lead Sweden. Jimmie Åkesson also stated that final results were not expected until later that night.

Parliamentary Speaker Andreas Norlén noted that the process of forming a government could be complex.