Sweden’s right bloc is showing a narrow lead with around 90% of votes counted after Sunday’s general election, with results pointing to a new government after eight years of Social Democrat rule, Reuters reports.
Early on Monday, figures showed the Moderates, Sweden Democrats, Christian Democrats and Liberals winning 176 seats in the 349-seat parliament against 173 for the centre-left.
In further evidence of a shift to the right, the anti-immigration Sweden Democrats – a party with Neo-Nazi roots, and a former ally of Nigel Farage in the European Parliament – is set to overtake the Moderates as Sweden’s second biggest party and the biggest in the opposition, marking a seismic shift in the country.
“Right now it looks like there will be a change of power. Our ambition is to sit in the government,” said Sweden Democrat leader Jimmie Akesson (pictured), whose campaign focused on gang crime and immigration after a record number of fatal shootings in troubled suburbs pushed Sweden to the top of such statistics in Europe.
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