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Sweden’s center left looks set to win in tight election race

Sep 14, 2026, 6:48am EDT
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Leader of the opposition and the Swedish Social Democratic Party Magdalena Andersson and Party Secretary Tobias Baudin.
Denis Balibouse/Reuters

Sweden’s center-left opposition appeared poised to retake power after a neck-and-neck election that nonetheless underlined the strength of the country’s far-right parties. Rising anti-immigrant sentiment has upended politics in Sweden, once one of the most welcoming countries to asylum seekers, as it has across Europe’s biggest economies: Marine Le Pen, the favorite to become France’s next president, said French people would have “more rights” than foreigners were she to win next year’s election, Le Monde reported.

Elsewhere, the UK’s Nigel Farage received a major boost over the weekend after two megadonors contributed $97 million — more than the sum total of all donations made to British political parties last year — to his party.

A chart showing different perceptions on illegal immigration over the past ten years.
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