France

Paris, September 15, 2026. The French press is following the Swedish electoral outcome like a suspenseful arithmetic vote. According to the preliminary results cited by L'Express and Sud Ouest, after counting 6,195 of the 6,312 districts, the center-left bloc led by Magdalena Andersson obtained 176 seats out of 349, against 173 for the outgoing coalition of Ulf Kristersson, allied with the Sweden Democrats. The gap, of just three seats, will only be confirmed on Wednesday, September 16, once the ballots of the 220,000 Swedes living abroad, "traditionally favorable to the right," are counted, Le Monde specifies.

The striking fact noted on the French side is not so much the possible shift in power as the unprecedented decline of the Sweden Democrats since 2010: from 20.5% of the vote in 2022 to around 17.5%, they lose their rank as the country's second party. BFMTV and 20 Minutes report the cries of joy and the slogan "no racists in our streets" chanted at the social-democratic headquarters. Several titles, including HuffPost France, link this decline to the European context, occurring "in the context of the rise of the AfD in Germany," after the party's victory in the state of Saxony-Anhalt on September 6.

On the domestic front, the French media insist on the fragility of the future left-wing coalition. Magdalena Andersson, who says she is "ready" to govern, will have to compose with a "fragmented" bloc, according to Sud Ouest, where the Left Party demands to enter the government while the Center Party refuses. A political scientist from the University of Lund, cited by Sud Ouest, warns: "This will take quite some time, they won't agree right away." On the right, Ulf Kristersson has not conceded defeat and could, in the event of a maintien, open ministerial posts to the Sweden Democrats for the first time.

Mediapart presents the vote as an opportunity for the opposition to bring down the "union of the right," while L'Express emphasizes that the outcome should not change Stockholm's pro-European and pro-Ukrainian line, regardless of the winner. The French press finally notes that this vote, held against a backdrop of a campaign dominated by health and purchasing power, is already shaping up to be "historic" in terms of the score of the Swedish far right.