General elections were held in Sweden on 11 September 2022 to elect the 349 members of the Riksdag who in turn elected the Prime Minister of Sweden. Under the constitution, regional and municipal elections were also held on the same day. The preliminary results presented on 15 September showed the government parties lost their majority, which were confirmed by the final results published on 17 September. After a month of negotiations following the elections that led to the Tidö Agreement among the right-wing bloc, Moderate Party (M) leader Ulf Kristersson was elected prime minister on 17 October. The Kristersson Cabinet is a minority government that relies on confidence and supply from the Sweden Democrats (SD).

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

2022 Swedish general election

← 2018 11 September 2022 Next →
All 349 seats in the Riksdag 175 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	84.2% ( 2.9pp)
First party Second party Third party   Leader Magdalena Andersson Jimmie Åkesson Ulf Kristersson Party Social Democrats Sweden Democrats Moderate Last election 100 seats, 28.3% 62 seats, 17.5% 70 seats, 19.8% Seats before 100 61 70 Seats won 107 73 68 Seat change 7 11 2 Popular vote 1,964,474 1,330,325 1,237,428 Percentage 30.3% 20.5% 19.1% Swing 2.0% 3.0% 0.7%   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Leader Nooshi Dadgostar Annie Lööf Ebba Busch Party Left Centre Christian Democrats Last election 28 seats, 8.0% 31 seats, 8.6% 22 seats, 6.3% Seats before 27 31 22 Seats won 24 24 19 Seat change 4 7 3 Popular vote 437,050 434,945 345,712 Percentage 6.8% 6.7% 5.3% Swing 1.3% 1.9% 1.0%   Seventh party Eighth party   Leader Märta Stenevi Per Bolund Johan Pehrson Party Green Liberals Last election 16 seats, 4.4% 20 seats, 5.5% Seats before 16 20 Seats won 18 16 Seat change 2 4 Popular vote 329,242 298,542 Percentage 5.1% 4.6% Swing 0.7% 0.9%
Distribution of constituency and levelling seats and largest political bloc within each constituency Largest party within each constituency (left) and municipality (right)
Prime Minister before election Magdalena Andersson Social Democrats Prime Minister after election Ulf Kristersson Moderate

Close

Following the 2018 Swedish general election, the Swedish Social Democratic Party (S) under Prime Minister Stefan Löfven formed a government with the Green Party (MP), while the Centre Party (C), the Left Party (V), and the Liberals (L) abstained during the vote of confidence on 18 January 2019. The Alliance, in which C and L had participated since 2004, was effectively dissolved; by late 2021, an informal right-wing alliance was formed by M with Kristersson as the prime ministerial candidate of a would-be government including the Christian Democrats (KD) with the support of L and SD. Löfven governed throughout the COVID-19 pandemic in Sweden, even as his government was briefly dismissed due to a no-confidence vote initiated by V in June 2021 over rent controls; he resigned from all political offices in November 2021. Magdalena Andersson, Sweden's former Minister for Finance, succeeded him and led the Andersson Cabinet from that time on, with C, V, and MP providing confidence and supply for the government.

The campaign period was met with issues regarding the accession of Sweden to NATO due to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, as well as crime, energy, the economy, and immigration. Parliamentary parties campaigned through July and August, while in late August SD surpassed M in opinion polls. Exit polls showed that S and its confidence-and-supply parties had a narrow lead against the right-leaning bloc (SD, M, KD, L). During the counting of the preliminary results and later on, Sweden's Election Authority said that the right-leaning bloc overtook the left-leaning bloc (S, V, C, MP) by three seats. Andersson conceded the election three days later, and resigned the day after that.

The election saw massive swings between the two blocs in different regions. The left-leaning bloc won the most votes in large cities and several university towns with unprecedented massive margins. This included major relative gains across the capital region and also flipping two suburban municipalities in Stockholm County. Meanwhile, the right managed to overturn dozens of municipalities that had historically been dominated by S, especially in the central interior Bergslagen region. In this historically industrial area, the county of Dalarna was won by the right-leaning coalition for the first time in history, while the left held on by just 373 votes in Värmland. Likewise, some municipalities that the outright leftist parties (S, V, MP) had won with an overall majority of 50 points in the 1994 Swedish general election, flipped to the right.

Major gains in minority were also made by the right-leaning bloc in northern Sweden, leading the vote in eight municipalities compared to none four years prior. In the lower east, the historically leftist swing counties Kalmar, Södermanland, Västmanland, and Östergötland all went to the right to seal the majority. S won 30% of the popular vote, with a net increase in spite of the election loss. SD became the second-largest party with above 20% of the popular vote, surpassing M at 19%. The blocs were separated by a thin margin of about half a percentage point. The parties aligned with the outgoing government did somewhat better in the regional and municipal elections.

The Swedish Social Democratic Party (S) regained power after the 2014 Swedish general election, with the Green Party (MP) taking part in Stefan Löfven's coalition government.^[1] S retained the position as the largest parliamentary party after the 2018 general election, despite losing 13 seats in comparison with the previous election.^[2] The election resulted in a hung parliament, as neither the Red-Greens nor the Alliance had enough seats to form a government, and the Sweden Democrats (SD), which had been subject to a cordon sanitaire by all other parties as an anti-immigration or far-right party, won 62 seats.^[3][4]

Ulf Kristersson, leader of the Moderate Party (M), was given the task of forming the government, and opened up to SD after previously ruling out an alliance with them upon assuming the party leadership in 2017 and during the 2018 election campaign. In turn, the Centre Party (C) and Liberals (L) declined to back his candidacy, as Kristersson wanted SD to take part in the government.^[5][6][7] Löfven was later given the task, although he also failed to form a government.^[8] Speaker of the Riksdag, Andreas Norlén, set another vote to be held in January, and Löfven formed a deal between S, MP, C, L, and the Left Party (V). Löfven was re-elected on 18 January 2019 with S and MP voting in favour, while C, L, and V abstained.^[9]

The Riksdag is made up of 349 seats, and all are elected through open list, proportional representation on multi-member party lists.^[43]

Of the 349 seats, 310 are elected within the 29 constituencies. The number of members per district ranges from 2 to 40. The remainder - the 39 other members - are apportioned nationally as levelling seats to ensure a proportional result. They are allocated to particular districts.

Were a party to win more constituencies than it is entitled to overall, a redistribution of constituency seats may occur to reduce the number of constituency seats won by that party.^[44]

Sweden has the distinction of having elections on a fixed date with a parliamentary system in which early elections can be called. In the latter case, the newly elected legislature would serve the remainder of the four-year term begun by the previous legislature. Elections are organised on the second Sunday of September every four years, at the same time as the municipal and regional elections.^[45][46][47]

Each of the 29 constituencies has a set number of parliamentarians that is divided through constituency results to ensure regional representation. The other members of parliament (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, or alternatively 12% or more within a constituency, is required for a party to enter the Riksdag. Were the latter to occur, the party only gains representation within that constituency's seat share.

In Swedish elections, voters may openly pick up several party-specific ballots, and then, in the voting booth, use the ballot they choose. Two election observers of the OSCE present at the 2018 general election criticised this system, saying that picking ballots openly could endanger ballot secrecy.^[48] This was changed in the 2022 election.^[49] Election officials are responsible for party-specific ballot papers being present in the voting places for parties that have obtained more than one per cent of the votes in the previous parliamentary election.^[50] A voter may write in the party name of choice on a blank ballot paper to cast a vote if there is no access to the desired party-specific ballot paper.^[51]

As of 15 September 2022, the results remained preliminary after a first tally was presented.^[92][93] The official results were announced about a week after the election, showing very minor changes.^[94][95]

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.^[99][100] 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).^[101][102] 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.^[103] S also won more votes in comparison with the 2018 Swedish general election.^[104]

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.^[105] The gap between the two blocs was around 50,000 votes.^[106] 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.^[107] Kristersson also said that a change in the numbers of seats is possible.^[108] 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".^[109] 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.^[110]

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".^[111] The election vigil also attracted controversy after SD politician Rebecka Fallenkvist proclaimed "Helg Seger" while raising her arm in an interview with far-right blog Samnytt, which is phonetically similar to "Hell Seger", the Swedish translation of the Nazi "Sieg Heil" chant. Fallenkvist subsequently told Expressen that she had aimed to provoke the media into overinterpretations before later telling Dagens Nyheter that she had misspoke and meant to say "segerhelg", which would translate to "victory weekend".^[112] 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.^[113]

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.^[114] Two days later, Lööf announced her resignation as party leader.^[115][116] Andersson conceded on 14 September,^[117] and announced her resignation as prime minister,^[118][119] 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.^[120] Some Liberals in particular have been wary of a government with SD.^[121] Renew Europe, the European parliamentary group of which L is part, has been critical of the Liberals being part of a government including SD.^[122]

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.^[123][124] 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.^{[125][126][127]}

Government formation

Main articles: 2022 Swedish government formation and Kristersson cabinet

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.^[128] On 12 October, Kristersson reported to the speaker and requested two more days to get his government documents together.^[129] 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.^[130][131] 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.^[132]

On 17 October, the Riksdag voted 176 to 173 in favour of Kristersson becoming prime minister under the four parties' agreement.^{[133][134][135]} 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.^[136][137] It is the first time SD will hold direct government influence.^[138] 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,^[139] as did opposition leaders led by S.^[140]

More information Ballot →, 17 October 2022 ...

Investiture Ulf Kristersson (Moderate Party)
Ballot →		17 October 2022
Required majority →		175 (including abstentions) out of 349
	Yes • SD (73) • M (68) • KD (19) • L (16)	176 / 349
	No • S (107) • C (24) • V (24) • MP (18)	173 / 349
	Abstentions • None	0 / 349
	Absentees • None	0 / 349
Result →		Yes Y
Sources[141]

Close

• List of members of the Riksdag, 2022–2026
• Basic Laws of Sweden
• Cordon sanitaire in Sweden
• County councils of Sweden
• History of Sweden (1991–present)
• Municipalities in Sweden
• Politics of Sweden