Italy

Rome, September 15, 2026. The count of the Swedish legislative elections confirms, in the eyes of the Italian press, a political shift acquired by the narrowest margin possible: according to the projections of the electoral authority, the opposition bloc led by social democrat Magdalena Andersson would surpass the outgoing coalition by just one seat, 175 to 174, a margin so narrow that the final result is not expected until Wednesday or Thursday, once the approximately 220,000 advance and foreign votes have been counted. The first exit polls from SVT/Valu had announced a much larger gap, 183 seats to 166, before the actual count significantly narrowed the margin.

But what is particularly noteworthy in Rome is the fate of the Sweden Democrats: the party of Jimmie Åkesson, which had conditioned the migration policy of Ulf Kristersson's government since 2022, is receding for the first time since its entry into the Riksdag in 2010, falling from around 20.5% to 17.5-18.5% of the vote according to estimates. The magazine Internazionale puts this decline in relation to a disappointing record: the "return subsidies" launched by Stockholm in 2022 and revalued this year - up to 31,000 euros per person, 45,000 for a couple, 53,000 for a family - have convinced only 171 people as of early 2026, despite a targeted advertising campaign explicitly targeting foreigners.

The daily Libero Quotidiano had nonetheless anticipated, until the eve of the vote, a possible maintenance of the hard line, judging that adherence to Kristersson's anti-immigration policies was "no longer a utopia" while polls credited the Sweden Democrats with 18 to 19% of the vote.

Regarding alliances, ANSA highlights the difficulty that awaits Andersson: reconciling the Left Party, which demands a governmental role, and the Centre Party, which is reluctant to any coalition with it. Social Democratic secretary Tobias Baudin said he was "absolutamente convinto" that a compromise would be found, while acknowledging that the formation of a government could take weeks, or even months. Kristersson, for his part, warned that "which government will lead Sweden in the coming years is still an open question".