General elections were held in Sweden on 13 September 2026 to elect the 349 members of the Riksdag. They in turn will elect the prime minister. Local elections were also held on the same day. The preliminary count on election night indicated that the left-wing parties were leading by three seats against the government parties and the Sweden Democrats. The last votes cast from abroad and late arriving early votes remain to be declared.
Background
After the 2022 general election, a right-wing bloc consisting of the Moderates (M), Christian Democrats (KD), Liberals (L) and Sweden Democrats (SD) secured a narrow majority of seats in the Riksdag. One month of negotiations between them followed, leading to the Tidö Agreement that allowed the M party leader Ulf Kristersson to become prime minister and lead the Kristersson cabinet. It was a minority government of M, KD and L with confidence and supply from SD. During the following term, the four parties became known as the Tidö parties.
The 2026 general election was the first parliamentary election in Sweden since the country acceded to NATO on 7 March 2024, after more than 200 years of military non-alignment. Sweden applied for NATO membership together with Finland in 2022, following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Electoral system
The Riksdag is made up of 349 seats elected by open lists and proportional representation, with an electoral threshold of 4% of the national vote or alternatively 12% within a single constituency. Of the 349 seats, 310 are elected from 29 constituencies ranging in size from 2 to 41 seats, while the other 39 seats are apportioned nationally as levelling seats to ensure parties that passed the 4% national threshold hold a proportional number of seats; these levelling seats are allocated to particular districts. If a party wins more constituency seats than it is entitled to overall, a redistribution of constituency seats may occur to reduce the number of constituency seats won by that party.
General elections are held on a fixed date, the second Sunday of September, at the same time as the municipal and regional elections. If early elections are called, the newly elected legislature only serves out the remainder of the four-year term begun by the previous legislature. Polls opened for Swedish citizens who resided abroad on 30 July 2026.
Political parties
The table below lists political parties represented in the Riksdag after the 2022 general election.
Independents
Before the election, there were nine members of parliament who had left their party, becoming independents. Each member had an individual mandate, so their party could not force them to resign. Nine independents was more than the Riksdag had ever had before.
Campaign
According to an August 2026 Novus poll, voters considered the ten most important political areas—ranked from most to least important—to be healthcare, education, law and order, immigration/integration, elderly care, the economy, employment, the climate, taxes, and energy policy.
Following the Fagersta school attack on 21 August 2026, several party leaders cancelled planned speeches ahead of the election. On the morning after the attack, more than 70 people, including party leaders Ulf Kristersson, Magdalena Andersson, Simona Mohamsson, and Elisabeth Thand Ringqvist gathered at a memorial site for the victims of the attack carrying flowers and lighting candles.
Potential governments
Since the 2010s and 2020s, it has become harder for Swedish parties to form coalitions, which is in keeping with a broader European trend of increased political fragmentation.
Tidö
During the 2022–2026 Riksdag term, the government has been formed by the Moderates (M), Christian Democrats (KD), and Liberals (L), with the support and co-operation of the Sweden Democrats (SD), outside of the government but intimately involved in policy decisions, as regulated by the Tidö Agreement. This group is referred to as the "Tidö parties" or the "blue-yellow" alliance. In 2025, the Tidö parties announced their intention to continue their cooperation after the 2026 election. How they were going to cooperate was unclear, as SD said they would vote against any government which did not grant them cabinet positions, while L said they would continue to block SD from receiving cabinet positions.
On 13 March 2026, L and SD announced an agreement ("The Sweden Promise"), which would give SD cabinet positions if the Tidö coalition received a majority of seats. The agreement also included policy goals they would cooperate on, including a national referendum on adopting the euro as currency, coinciding with the 2030 general election. For most of the period 2022–2026, support for L has been well below the Riksdag's 4% electoral threshold according to opinion polls. This has been a concern for the Tidö parties' ability to maintain power and caused some in-fighting, with for example SD's Jimmie Åkesson telling Tidö supporters not to consider lending their vote to L unless they reach at least 3.5% in polls by 3 September.
Opposition
The opposition has consisted primarily of the "red-greens", which refers to the Social Democrats (S), Greens (MP) and Left Party (V), with the liberal Center Party (C) also in opposition. If the opposition parties (either the red-green parties in their own right, or with the support of C) achieved a majority, then Magdalena Andersson (party leader for S) would be the likely prime minister. However, for this election, V have said they would vote against any government where they did not receive cabinet positions, a change from previous elections where they were willing to support an S government without their involvement. At the same time, C have said they refuse to support a government with V. This poses a problem for Andersson, as it is likely that seats from all four opposition parties would be needed to form a government, but C and V's demands cannot be directly reconciled.
Centrist government
A third possible government that has received media attention is a centrist government containing S, MP, C, and KD. This is a preferred option for C, but MP are skeptical of the idea. Despite some prior "flirting" between Andersson (S) and Busch (KD), which had drawn criticism from Åkesson (SD), Busch said on 2 September that KD would vote against Andersson even if it would trigger a new election.
Returning politicians
Former minister and contender for the leadership of the Liberals Birgitta Ohlsson announced on 18 March 2026 that she would be a parliamentary candidate for the Centre party. On 20 March, former Liberal leader (1997–2007) Lars Leijonborg announced his return to politics as a parliamentary candidate for the Liberals. Approximately a quarter of members of the Riksdag did not seek reelection, including half of the Liberal representatives.
Results
In the preliminary result, only the votes of the eight parties currently represented in the Riksdag are reported separately. The votes cast for all other parties are reported collectively.
Results by county
The Social Democrats won every region, performing best in the northern Norrbotten County with 36.1% of the vote. However, the larger left-wing bloc won just nine counties: Norrbotten, Västerbotten, Västernorrland, Jämtland, Västra Götaland, Örebro, Uppsala, and Gotland, as well as the capital, Stockholm. The latter saw the strongest result for the Left Party at 9.9%; similarly, it performed well in the Stockholm Municipality.
Analysis
With 80% of the votes counted, the opposition parties led by the Social Democrats and Magdalena Andersson held 175 seats against 174 for the governing Tidö parties led by Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson. As counting continued, the opposition's lead increased to three seats, with 176 seats against 173 for the Tidö parties, although around 30,000 votes separated the blocs and a substantial number of advance votes remained to be counted. The final result was therefore not yet clear, with the remaining postal and late advance votes potentially affecting the distribution of seats.
The Social Democrats won every region, performing best in the northern Norrbotten County with 36.1% of the vote. However, the left-wing bloc won just nine counties: Norrbotten, Västerbotten, Västernorrland, Jämtland, Västra Götaland, Örebro, Uppsala, and Gotland, as well as the capital, Stockholm. The latter saw the strongest result for the Left Party at 9.9%; similarly, it performed well in the Stockholm Municipality.
See also
2024 European Parliament election in Sweden
2026 elections in the European Union
2026 Swedish local elections
Basic Laws of Sweden
History of Sweden (1991–present)
Politics of Sweden
