Forming a government in Sweden: Sweden's center flirts with the right

Almost two months after the Swedish parliamentary election, the tough political poker over a new government has suddenly started to move, and violently. Could the Sweden Democrats actually regain influence in the government – ​​because the Center Party changes sides? This possibility has been causing excitement in Sweden since the weekend.

Actually, it is part of the core of the Center Party to strictly demarcate itself from the political outer fringes. That is why Social Democrat Magdalena Andersson has not yet been able to form a coalition with the Greens, the Center and the Left parties.

Because the Left Party is too far outside the Center Party. Andersson was the first to be tasked with forming a government. After the close election result in September, such a coalition would have a majority of two seats over the previous bourgeois government parties and their cooperation partner, the right-wing Sweden Democrats.

The construct was called the Tidö government - after the place where the cooperation was sealed in 2022. In particular, migration and crime policy in recent years has been strongly influenced by the Sweden Democrats. And critics are now warning about “Tidö 2.0” because Center leader Elisabeth Thand Ringqvist is suddenly toying with a minority government under the previous Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson.

The social-liberal Center Party is left-wing on climate and migration issues, but right-of-center on economic policy. In the election she ran for a left-green government under Andersson. The flirtation with Kristersson's Moderates, the Liberals and the Christian Democrats is not fundamentally absurd: in 2006, the parties formed a bourgeois alliance government under the moderate Fredrik Reinfeldt.

However, there has been a serious change in parliament since then: the presence of the Sweden Democrats. While they were still an insignificant small party back then, in 2026 they will be the third strongest party with a good 17 percent, despite the first election losses in their history. A new alliance government would not have a majority - it would depend on the votes of the Sweden Democrats for every decision, warn opponents of this idea.

The excitement began on Friday when the top Swedish Democrat, Jimmie Åkesson, surprisingly announced that his party was giving up its claim to a ministerial post in a possible bourgeois government. He called the new goal “full opposition” and wanted to finally help the country find a solution.

Crucial detail: He assured that Ulf Kristersson would be tolerated in a vote for Prime Minister, and that opposition would only apply afterwards. This should obviously open the way for the Center Party, which can thus argue around its red lines.

Shortly after Åkesson's appearance, chairwoman Thand Ringqvist made it clear that the Center Party, with its 7 percent, is happy to accept the role of kingmaker: She now demanded an “overall package” of their respective government plans from both the Social Democrats and the Moderates. To be delivered by the end of this week at the latest.

According to Swedish media, a dispute over direction has broken out in the party. The chairwoman is leaning towards the right, reports the newspaper Dagens Nyheter, citing well-informed circles. Such a decision would be seen as a betrayal by many voters. Left Party leader Nooshi Dadgostar and Green Party European Parliament member Alice Bah Kuhnke are among those who have publicly warned against this step.

The commotion was preceded by getting stuck between red lines on the left side. The Left Party, the Greens and the Center all went into the election campaign with Andersson as the desired head of government - but under contradictory conditions.

The Center Party categorically refuses to sit in a government with the Left. It would be available for various minority governments, including a purely social democratic one. As a supporting party, it would have been content with influencing Andersson's government policy. Alone: ​​The Left Party categorically rejects simply supporting a minority government without its own ministries. Mission impossible – how Andersson imagined it would be is unclear. She is accused of lack of planning.

On Sunday, under pressure, she explicitly demanded for the first time that the Left give up its claim to government and support a coalition of the Social Democrats, the Center and the Greens. The initial reaction was outraged rejection. On Tuesday it was announced that the four-party talks of the left spectrum (including the Center Party) would be resumed.

Sweden should know more by next Tuesday at the latest: Then Ulf Kristersson should finally present the results of his exploratory talks.