By Ingrid "Shortwave" Frost
Sweden votes Sunday in an election so close that the latest poll cited by The Guardian puts just 0.3 points between the left and right blocs — margin-of-error territory that could decide whether the far right enters government there for the first time.
Magdalena Andersson of the Social Democrats remains the favorite to reclaim the prime minister's office after four years in opposition, The Guardian reports, with the centre-left alliance still nominally ahead in polling. But that lead has narrowed sharply in the campaign's final days, and rightwing parties are within reach of a governing majority if they can hold together.
What's at stake is bigger than one election cycle. Sweden has long branded itself, and been treated by allies, as a kind of global standard-bearer on human rights and open-door asylum policy. The Guardian's reporting frames the vote as a test of whether that reputation survives contact with a rightward shift already visible across the rest of Europe — most recently in Germany, where the far-right Alternative für Deutschland's win in Saxony-Anhalt has rattled the political establishment there.
No outcome is called yet. Polls close Sunday, and with a margin this thin, the final tally — not the pre-election surveys — will be what matters. This report is based on Guardian polling data and analysis; final results were not available at time of writing.
FILED FROM SOMEWHERE WITH BAD COFFEE —
— Compiled from reporting by The Guardian.
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