Sweden’s united left opposition has taken a three-seat majority in the Riksdag after the final count of Sunday’s election, and Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson has resigned.
The Election Authority’s completed tally, published on Thursday, gives the red-green side 176 seats in the 349-member parliament and the outgoing Tidö parties 173.
About 50,000 votes separated the two blocs in a country of 10.6 million. Turnout was 84.8 per cent.
Formal certification is due this weekend.
Kristersson wrote to Speaker Andreas Norlén that the speaker should now lead the search for a government, and asked to be relieved at once so that work could start.
He and his ministers stay on as caretakers.
Magdalena Andersson’s Social Democrats remain the largest party, with 99 seats, though they lost ground.
The Left took 30, the Centre 25 and the Greens 22.
On the right the Moderates have 70, the Sweden Democrats 62, the Christian Democrats 22 and the Liberals 19.
Andersson, who lost the premiership in 2022, said voters had chosen “a new direction… cohesion against division”.
Forming a cabinet will be difficult though, as internal cohesion is strained. The four parties disagree on tax, nuclear power, migration and how far to deal with the Sweden Democrats.
Kristersson warned that campaign red lines would block any prime minister unless the Riksdag showed “constructive openness”, not least on a budget.
The result ends four years of a Moderate-led minority backed by the Sweden Democrats through the Tidö agreement.
Kristersson had offered them cabinet posts if he won. That door is shut for now. SD leader Jimmie Åkesson will comment on the election results on Friday.
🇸🇪 Statistics Sweden found the two political blocs roughly level among voters of Swedish background.
But 37 percentage points apart among voters of foreign background.
Read more ⬇️#SwedishElection #EuropeanPolitics #Migration https://t.co/4t5h4CWjJt
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) September 14, 2026
