Parliamentary election in Sweden: Young Swedes stop populists

T he Sweden Democrats were brimming with self-confidence in this election campaign. They dreamed of soon being directly involved in the government with their own ministries. But oh – they have been thwarted, the right-wing populists who have been so used to success. Since entering parliament in 2010, they have gained several percentage points in every election. They wanted to become the new Swedish people's party. They had already managed to secure a majority for the current liberal-conservative government. They have now lost around three percentage points and there is a slim majority for the center-left camp.

Sweden Democrats party leader Jimmie Åkesson blamed the loss on election night on the Liberals, who had intensively campaigned for tactical votes in order to remain in parliament. And then to be able to continue the previous center-right coalition with the so-called Tidö parties. An election researcher immediately dismissed this explanation - tactical voting could not explain the loss of almost three percentage points. What is more serious is the observation that the right-wing populists were unable to convince Swedish first-time voters. They actually lost the most in this group. The trend to the right, especially among young men, appears to have ended for the time being. However, little has changed among the old regular customers.

It is at least open to speculation as to whether the consequences of the harsh migration policy were too close to home for first-time voters. What caused a stir this year was the sudden expulsion of teenagers who had just turned 18, had lived in Sweden for a long time and went to school here. What exactly is the reason and whether this development proves to be sustainable - for the moment at least the result is enough to provide relief. Even though the Sweden Democrats have long since succeeded in pulling large parts of Sweden's political landscape to the right, their rise was not unstoppable.

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And what does Chief Social Democrat Magdalena Andersson have to do with it? In any case, her repeated warnings about the Sweden Democrats did not result in any lost voters returning to her party. Although the Social Democrats became the strongest force, they achieved their worst result since the introduction of universal suffrage in the country. After all, the party leader has always been consistent in her stance against the right - things are different on the conservative side of the party spectrum.

Now – contrary to what the polls suggested – there was no clear shift to the left in Sweden. But still, at least: There was a small “away from the far right” jolt.