General elections were held in Sweden on 9 September 2018 to elect the 349 members of the Riksdag. Regional and municipal elections were also held on the same day. The incumbent minority government, consisting of the Social Democrats and the Greens and supported by the Left Party, won 144 seats, one seat more than the four-party Alliance coalition, with the Sweden Democrats winning the remaining 62 seats. The Social Democrats' vote share fell to 28.3 percent, its lowest level of support since 1911.

Quick Facts All 349 seats in the Riksdag 175 seats needed for a majority, Turnout ...

2018 Swedish general election

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All 349 seats in the Riksdag 175 seats needed for a majority
Opinion polls
Turnout	87.1% ( 1.3pp)
First party Second party Third party   Leader Stefan Löfven Ulf Kristersson Jimmie Åkesson Party Social Democrats Moderate Sweden Democrats Alliance Red-Greens The Alliance – Last election 31.0%, 113 seats 23.3%, 84 seats 12.9%, 49 seats Seats won 100 70 62 Seat change 13 14 13 Popular vote 1,830,386 1,284,698 1,135,627 Percentage 28.3% 19.8% 17.5% Swing 2.7pp 3.5pp 4.6pp   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Leader Annie Lööf Jonas Sjöstedt Ebba Busch Thor Party Centre Left Christian Democrats Alliance The Alliance – The Alliance Last election 6.1%, 22 seats 5.7%, 21 seats 4.6%, 16 seats Seats won 31 28 22 Seat change 9 7 6 Popular vote 557,500 518,454 409,478 Percentage 8.6% 8.0% 6.3% Swing 2.5pp 2.3pp 1.7pp   Seventh party Eighth party   Leader Jan Björklund Isabella Lövin Gustav Fridolin Party Liberals Green Alliance The Alliance Red-Greens Last election 5.4%, 19 seats 6.9%, 25 seats Seats won 20 16 Seat change 1 9 Popular vote 355,546 285,899 Percentage 5.5% 4.4% Swing 0.1pp 2.5pp
Distribution of constituency and levelling seats and largest political bloc within each constituency Largest party within each constituency (left) and municipality (right)

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The main opposition, the Moderates, lost even more support. The Sweden Democrats made gains, though less than anticipated.^{[1][2][3][4][5][6]} Regardless, the party became the largest in two constituencies in southern region Scania and topped the polls in 21 out of 33 Scanian municipalities and in 31 out of 290 municipalities overall.^[7] The voter turnout of 87.18%^[7] was the highest in 33 years and 1.38 percentage points higher than the 2014 elections. A record 26 out of 29 constituencies returned a hung parliament.^[7] 46% of seats were won by women (161 out of 349).^[8] The number has since increased to 47.2% (165 out of 349).^[9]

Following the elections, Prime Minister Stefan Löfven lost a vote of no-confidence on 25 September, forcing a parliamentary vote on a new government. In the meantime, his government remained in power as a caretaker government.^[10] Speaker Andreas Norlén nominated Moderate leader Ulf Kristersson to form a government on 9 November. However, Kristersson lost a vote to confirm him in office by a margin of 154–195. He was supported by his own Moderate Party, the Christian Democrats and the Sweden Democrats, despite having ruled out this scenario before the election, but the Liberals and the Centre Party, the other parties in the centre-right Alliance, were not willing to form a government reliant on the Sweden Democrats.^[11][12] On 15 November, Norlén invited Centre Party leader Annie Lööf to try to form a government, but she was unable to do so. Norlén then nominated Löfven, but following unsuccessful negotiations with the Centre Party and the Liberals he lost a confirmation vote 116–200 on 14 December.^[13]

Hours after the failed vote to confirm Löfven, Norlén announced that he would be meeting with representatives of the Election Authority regarding a potential extraordinary election. The Speaker also stated that he would be engaging in talks with the parties during the weekend and that he would present the next phase of the government formation process by the following week.^[14] Löfven was finally re-elected with a 115–153 result as prime minister on 18 January 2019 after the Social Democrats struck an agreement with the Greens, the Liberals, and the Centre Party;^[15] and after the Left Party reluctantly agreed to abstain from voting against Löfven.^[15] Due to Sweden's principle of negative parliamentarism this result was enough, as less than the majority of the parliament voted against him, while the supporting parties abstained. The result saw a breakup of the Alliance with the remaining right-wing parties aligning closer with the Sweden Democrats in parliament.

With the government being down to 116 seats (59 short of a majority), this rendered it the government with the lowest electoral support to begin a term during universal suffrage in Sweden and forced to approve several liberal policy platforms the government had campaigned against.^[16] With the right-wing opposition having 154 seats, to the coalition and confidence and supply agreements' 167 and the Left Party's 28, it still rendered a hung parliament even after the government formation, which exposed the government to high-profile losses in parliament.^[17] With the Liberals leaving the confidence and supply after a no-confidence vote in 2021, the de facto parliamentary blocs ended being 175 to 174 with the de facto majority for the red-greens being 0.1%. The metropolitan versus small town divide got stronger. With the 2021 constellations, the election saw Södermanland and Västmanland retroactively flip to the right for the first time during universal suffrage dating back a century, while also Blekinge went blue for the first time in the unicameral era.^[7] Meanwhile, the six largest municipalities had leftist majorities.^[7]

In May 2018, the issues that the Swedish voters considered most important were immigration, healthcare and integration.^[21] In the days leading up to the election, the most important issue was the environment, followed by immigration and health care.^[22] With the polls showing that the Sweden Democrats could be kingmakers there was speculation over possible government coalitions.^[23]

Concerns about foreign influence in the election were raised by the Swedish Security Service and others, leading to various countermeasures.^[24][25]

The summer of 2018 saw several violent incidents occur, including the arson of over 100 cars on 15 August, which may have caused 10% of Swedes to state that "law and order" is the key issue in the upcoming election.^{[26][additional citation(s) needed]} While Sweden has faced sporadic gang violence in recent years at the end of summer break for students, violence in Gothenburg, Falkenberg and Trollhättan was said to be on a larger scale.^[27] Prime Minister Löfven referred to the August violence as if it was organized "almost like a military operation".^[27] In the following days, Twitter accounts connected to Russia tweeted about the fires, according to the Alliance for Securing Democracy intending to influence English-language readers.^[28] According to the Oxford Internet Institute, eight of the top 10 "junk news" sources during the election campaign were Swedish, and "Russian sources comprised less than 1% of the total number of URLs shared in the data sample."^[29] It has been claimed by domestic media that Non-Swedish media frequently emphasize the events in order to advance a narrative of a society in decay, along with some negative but restricted reporting around immigration, to describe great gains by the Sweden Democrats. This has been criticized as a "false narrative" and "misreporting" by domestic media.^[30][31][32]

The Swedish Riksdag is made up of 349 MPs, and all are elected through open list proportional representation on multi-member party lists that are either regional (most major parties) or national (Sweden Democrats). Each of the 29 constituencies has a set number of parliamentarians that is divided through constituency results to ensure regional representation. The other MPs are then elected through a proportional balancing, to ensure that the numbers of elected MPs for the various parties accurately represent the votes of the electorate. The Swedish constitution (Regeringsformen) 1 Ch. 4 § says that the Riksdag is responsible for taxation and making laws, and 1 Ch. 6 § says that the government is held responsible to the Riksdag. This means that Sweden has parliamentarism in a constitutional monarchy—ensuring that the government is responsible to the people's representatives. A minimum of 4% of the national vote is required for a party to enter the Riksdag, alternatively 12% or more within a constituency.

The table below lists parties' 2014 representation in the Riksdag.

Numerous media sources noted the gains made by the Sweden Democrats,^{[51][52][53][54][55]} tying those gains to the simultaneous rise of right-wing populist parties across Europe.^[56][57] However, it was noted that the party did not grow as much as some polls had predicted.^{[58][59][60][61]} While the Social Democrats performed better than expected, the party still saw its worst result since 1908.^[57][62][63] According to The Guardian, the growth of the SD "upended perhaps western Europe's most stable political order",^[64] and other commentators made similar statements.^[65] According to Emily Schultheis of Foreign Policy, the SD won an ideological victory, as it "effectively set the terms for debate" and forced its rivals to adopt immigration policies similar to its own,^[6] and other reporters made similar observations.^[66][67]

The election did not result in a clear victory for any political faction.^{[55][68][69][70]} The Sweden Democrats performed particularly well in Skåne County, having the highest number of voters in 21 out of the county's 33 municipalities.^[71] SVT reported that at least 22 seats in 17 city councils would be empty as the Sweden Democrats won more seats than the number of candidates it had.^[72][73] The party received its first mayor, in Hörby Municipality.^[74] Despite the Social Democrats' worst result nationwide in decades, they overtook the Moderates in the latter's traditional stronghold of Stockholm city. Additionally, the Social Democrats and the Left Party saw an increase in the number of votes cast in that constituency while the Moderates lost votes; consequently, the Red-Green bloc also overtook the Alliance in the constituency.^[75]

The election resulted in a hung parliament, with the red-green and centre-right coalitions each holding about 40% of the seats, and the Sweden Democrats holding the remainder.^[68][69][76]

Prime Minister Stefan Löfven lost the motion of no confidence against him and his cabinet on 25 September 2018, with 142 members of parliament voting to retain Löfven's cabinet and 204 voting against.^[10][77][78] This triggered a constitutional procedure wherein the Riksdag is given four chances to vote on a new Prime Minister. If the Riksdag failed all four attempts to elect a new Prime Minister, a snap election would be mandatory.

Party negotiations for forming a new government commenced on 27 September,^[79] but the deadlock remained as neither Löfven nor Kristersson could construct a stable coalition. On 14 November, Kristersson was formally nominated as PM, but lost the confidence vote when the Center and Liberal parties refused to back him, as they were unwilling to work in a government that relied on the Sweden Democrats.^[80][81] The vote was historical, as it was the first time a candidate for Prime Minister was rejected by the Riksdag since the abolition of the bicameral legislature in 1971.^[12]

After continued, unfruitful negotiations, Speaker Norlén nominated Löfven to be re-appointed Prime Minister on 12 December. Though the Center and Liberal parties were initially willing to work with him in securing a coalition, talks broke down days before the vote due to disagreements with the budget, and thus Löfven too lost his confidence vote two days later.^[13] On the same day that Löfven was nominated, the Riksdag rejected the caretaker government's provisional budget, and instead passed a competing budget designed by the Moderates and Christian Democrats.^[82][83]

Norlén stated after the vote that he would restart negotiations between the parties, while at the same time preparing for the possibility of a snap election.^[84] Norlén then created a finalized timeline for forming a government, and urged Kristersson and Löfven to find a compromise. Without nominating a new candidate, he set the next vote for a prime minister initially for 16 January (but later postponed to 18 January owing to differences between the Social Democrats and the Left Party), and a final vote on 23 January if the first vote would fail. If neither vote had succeeded, a snap election would have been called immediately, scheduled to take place on 21 April.^[85]

On 11 January 2019, a deal was struck between the Social Democrats, the Greens, the Centre Party, and the Liberals to allow Löfven to continue governing. However, over the next few days, senior officials of the Left Party expressed concern and were leaning towards voting against the proposed government and instead called on Löfven to continue negotiations with them. On 16 January, Sjöstedt agreed to abstain from voting against Löfven. On 18 January, Löfven was formally reelected with 192 yes votes and abstentions.^[86]