Sweden held its national election on September 13, and the campaign turned it into a referendum on one question: should the Sweden Democrats finally get actual cabinet ministries? Sweden's mainstream parties have treated the party as a pariah for decades. Since 2022, the party has only backed Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson's government from outside parliament, without ministries of its own. Kristersson said months ago that if his bloc won a majority, he'd form a four-party government that finally puts the Sweden Democrats in cabinet, reportedly with leader Jimmie Åkesson taking the migration portfolio. Polls closed at 8pm local time, and the first exit polls put Magdalena Andersson's centre-left bloc ahead at 51.3%, with Kristersson's coalition at 46.8% and the Sweden Democrats losing ground compared to 2022. Officials don't expect full, certified results until the weekend of September 19-20.

1. Kristersson and Åkesson Say the Party Has Earned a Seat at the Table (PM Ulf Kristersson, Sweden Democrats leader Jimmie Åkesson)

They argue the Sweden Democrats have already proven themselves and deserve real power, not just influence from outside.

Åkesson thought the outcome was already decided in his favor. At a final rally in Stockholm the night before the vote, he declared, "We've already won!" and said Sweden is "becoming safer, better, and more Swedish," in front of posters reading "Make Sweden Sweden Again."

Kristersson is framing a possible right-wing win as basic competence. "We can unify parties, voters and issues into joint action," he said. "That's why we get things done." He's also borrowed Donald Trump's language directly, saying he wants to use his bloc's "far better preconditions to improve the lives of ordinary people … to make Sweden great again."

They've already governed for four years, just without ministries. The Sweden Democrats have backed Kristersson's government since 2022 without holding ministries. Kristersson's plan would finally give them that, and observers widely expect Åkesson to run migration policy, including asylum, integration and deportations.

2. Andersson and Ohlsson Call It a Historic Line Sweden Shouldn't Cross (Social Democrats leader Magdalena Andersson, Centre Party lawmaker Birgitta Ohlsson)

They argue this isn't a normal governing coalition — it's a party with neo-Nazi roots getting the keys to the state.

Andersson frames this as a stark choice for the country. "Should we have a government entirely dominated by the Sweden Democrats?" she asked after voting. "Or should we have a government led by me?"

She's also making an economic case against the current government. "We've become a harder society, a quieter society, but also a poorer society as we've had growth far below our potential," she said.

Ohlsson says the stakes go beyond this one election. The Centre Party lawmaker warned that Sweden Democrats in cabinet "would have an enormously negative impact on the liberal ideals" the country has stood for.

The party's founding history is the backdrop to all of this. The Sweden Democrats launched in 1988 as successor to the "Sweden Party," which had formed two years earlier when it merged with the racist group Keep Sweden Swedish. Its first chairman had belonged to an openly neo-Nazi party, and its first auditor was a Waffen-SS veteran. Researchers at the anti-racism publication Expo found roughly 60% of the party's early members had ties to neo-fascist or white-nationalist groups.

3. Historian Lars Trägårdh Says the Alarm Is Overblown (Historian Lars Trägårdh)

He argues Sweden has already run this experiment for four years without disaster, and treating a fifth of the electorate as untouchable is its own distortion.

Trägårdh thinks the reaction to a possible SD cabinet seat is disproportionate. "It's time to tone down the hysteria," he said.

His case rests on the last four years, not just this one. The Sweden Democrats have already shaped government policy from outside the cabinet since 2022 without the institutional rupture their critics predicted, and Trägårdh argues that a party pulling 17-20% of the vote isn't a fringe group anymore.

Where This Lands

Kristersson and Åkesson see a governing partner finally getting the ministries it's earned. Andersson and Ohlsson see a party with a neo-Nazi founding history about to run the state for the first time. Trägårdh says both sides are overreacting to an arrangement that's already been in place for years. None of it is settled yet — pollsters took those exit polls as voting ended, officials were still counting real ballots Sunday night, and certified results won't arrive until the weekend of September 19-20.

Sources