, 35 minutes before closing time, on election day, 11 September 2022 Voting stations were opened from 08:00 (
CEST) to 20:00, and there were 7,772,120
Swedish nationals in total that had the right to vote in the 2022 general election. According to
exit polls that were published by
Sveriges Television and
TV4, the bloc around the
Swedish Social Democratic Party (S) showed a tight lead against the bloc around the
Moderate Party (M). It was also reported that the
Sweden Democrats (SD) surpassed M in the number of votes, and suggested that it could become the second-largest parliamentary party. S also won more votes in comparison with the
2018 Swedish general election. Sweden's
Election Authority stated that the bloc that composed of M, SD,
Christian Democrats (KD), and
Liberals (L) overtook the bloc around S by one to three seats during the counting of the preliminary results. The gap between the two blocs was around 50,000 votes.
Ulf Kristersson, the M leader, stated that "the results would be likely known by Wednesday" and he thanked his voters, while
Jimmie Åkesson, the SD leader, stated that SD would play a "central role" in the power shift. Kristersson also said that a change in the numbers of seats is possible. As overseas and some postal votes were to be counted, the incumbent prime minister
Magdalena Andersson stated that "it is too close to call the election". Some analysts have seen the rise of the
Nuance Party, mainly aimed at the country's Muslim population, as one of the causes of the losses in the left bloc. SD's election night vigil in Stockholm attracted controversy after the party refused to grant access to several foreign language media and after the party's chief of staff
Linus Bylund joked that he was looking forward to "journalist rugby", where "you push journalists around". The election vigil also attracted controversy after SD politician
Rebecka Fallenkvist proclaimed while raising her arm in an interview with far-right blog
Samnytt, which is phonetically similar to , the Swedish translation of the Nazi "
Sieg Heil" chant. Fallenkvist subsequently told that she had aimed to provoke the media into overinterpretations before later telling that she had misspoke and meant to say , which would translate to "victory weekend". In late October, an SD candidate who had been elected to the
Nynäshamn City Council resigned as a councillor after a media investigation found that she had been an active member of the neo-Nazi
Nordic Resistance Movement for two decades. On 13 September
Annie Lööf, the leader of the
Centre Party (C), sent an internal email to the party's elected politicians in which she called the results for the party "very disappointing" and stated that C's board would conduct an investigation into the party's campaign. Two days later, Lööf announced her resignation as party leader. Andersson conceded on 14 September, and announced her resignation as prime minister, paving the way for Kristersson to attempt to form a new government. Andersson called upon M, KD, and L to reject SD, and said she was open to a government with M that would exclude SD. Some Liberals in particular have been wary of a government with SD.
Renew Europe, the
European parliamentary group of which L is part, has been critical of the Liberals being part of a government including SD. Despite the right-wing majority, no government had been formed by the opening of the newly elected
Riksdag on 26 September. Moderate Party leaders raised concerns that SD would hold a disproportionate amount of influence over a new government, and would use the committee chairmanships allocated to them to block or delay government policy. On 26 September
Andreas Norlén of the Moderate Party was re-elected as
Speaker of the Riksdag by acclamation. The election of
Julia Kronlid of the Sweden Democrats as
Second Deputy Speaker of the Riksdag required a second ballot after the first ballot fell three votes short of the required majority.
Government formation On 19 September, Speaker
Andreas Norlén, after talks with representatives of the Riksdag parties and a discussion with the Deputy Speakers, tasked
Ulf Kristersson of the
Moderate Party (M) with probing the conditions for forming a government. On 12 October, Kristersson reported to the speaker and requested two more days to get his government documents together. On 14 October, Kristersson announced to the Speaker of the Riksdag that he was ready to form a government with the
Christian Democrats (KD) and the
Liberals (L), with the support of the
Sweden Democrats (SD). The four parties' written agreement with Kristersson as Prime Minister for the 2022–2026 term is called the
Tidö Agreement. With the agreement, named after the place where it was negotiated, this is the first time SD have formalised influence over a government's policy. On 17 October, the Riksdag voted 176 to 173 in favour of Kristersson becoming prime minister under the four parties' agreement. As a government, M, KD, and L together have fewer seats than the
Swedish Social Democratic Party (S) and must rely on SD for every vote. This means that M, KD, and L are part of a
minority government, while SD gets civil servants in the government office (despite internal opposition from L, the more vocal anti-SD party within the right-wing bloc, and it being one of the red lines the party had drawn prior to the election) and gives external support through
confidence and supply to assure the Kristersson-led government of its
absolute majority. It is the first time SD will hold direct government influence. Two
European Union lawmakers, one from the Left Party, criticised the centre-right and M in particular, as a member of the
European People's Party, for allying with the far right, as did opposition leaders led by S. == See also ==