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Swedes vote with Kristersson slightly behind Andersson
September 13, 2026
Swedes head to the polls Sunday with Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson's center-right party slightly behind Magdalena Andersson's Social Democrats.
Ulf Kristersson is Sweden's prime minister and leads its center-right party, which has governed with support from the Sweden Democrats since 2022; Magdalena Andersson, a former prime minister, leads the Social Democrats.
Key facts
- Killings in Sweden have grown more frequent since 2013, Fox News reported, with shootings feeding the country's overall homicide figures.
- Citing The Associated Press, Fox News reported that the founders of the Sweden Democrats came out of far-right extremist circles, neo-Nazis among them.
- The Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention puts the country's homicide level at roughly four deaths for every million residents each year, a figure it describes as very high next to the rest of Europe, according to Fox News.
- Fox News reported that a week after the AfD carried a state election in Germany, the hard-right Sweden Democrats stand to take seats in government should Kristersson's party hold onto its win.
Fox News reports that polling is open on Sunday, that Ulf Kristersson's center-right party trails Magdalena Andersson's center-left Social Democrats by a narrow margin, and that voters are weighing migration, crime and the economy above all else. Reuters carries the same ballot, its title placing the hard right within reach of office. Al Jazeera carries it too, framing the day as one that may bring the far right into government. On substance the three accounts line up: the polls are open, the two blocs sit close together, and a second win for Kristersson's party would put the Sweden Democrats inside a governing arrangement.
What Fox News adds is the longer arc. Schatz traces the border tightening to 2015, when arrivals from Syria and other war-torn countries overwhelmed the reception system, and says the present government has pushed that turn considerably further. He describes a party that built its appeal on migration while rivals moved late to similar ground, and one that went from total exclusion to being treated as a legitimate partner by three parties of the right across 2018 to 2022. Fox News also relays an Associated Press account of the party's founding by activists drawn from far-right extremist circles, neo-Nazis among them.
Crime and the welfare system run alongside that. Fox News dates the climb in killings to 2013, attributing the wider rise to shootings, and cites the Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention placing Sweden near the top in Europe at roughly four deaths per million residents each year. The country that once served as a template for Western social provision has spent years under financial pressure, with governments of either bloc reworking benefits while public expectations held. No account cuts against another here. The open ballot, the tight standing of the blocs, and the concerns driving turnout are corroborated; the outcome is not yet in the record.
“After the 2015 influx of asylum seekers from Syria and other war-torn countries strained its reception system, Sweden began tightening its borders. The current government has taken that shift much further,” said Schatz.
Still developing
The migration, crime and economy concerns carry the same way in every account, and nothing in the record as of the draft cuts against it.
How settled the reporting is
Sources
- Fox News — Sweden votes as migration, crime and economy dominate high-stakes election
- aljazeera.com — Voting under way in Sweden election that could see far right in government
- AP