Center-right and nationalists are the big winners

The success of the Liberal and Green parties in other parts of Europe did not reflect in the European elections in Sweden. The Green Party is down two seats. Nevertheless, the party’s election results of 11.4% are still considered a great victory, given that the figures just a few months ago pointed towards around 6%.

Support for the Liberal Party was halved, but the party will still have one MEP. The conflict around the top candidate, who was replaced late in the process, damaged the party’s result in the election. For Prime Minister Stefan Löfven, it is a relief that the Liberals remain in the European Parliament, as it reduces the likelihood of a government crisis.

The Moderate and Christian Democrat parties (both EPP) will gain one more seat each. The Sweden Democrats, an anti-immigration party in the ECR group, went up almost six percentage points and will gain one seat.

For the first time, EU membership was not an issue. Both the Left Party (GUE/NGL) and the Swedish Democrats (ECR) declared at an early stage that they would not demand a Swedish exit, even though the parties are opposed to EU integration in general. A record number of people voted in the European elections in Sweden. The turnout is around 53%, up to two percentage points compared to the last elections five years ago. Swedish membership of the EU has strong support, with a total of 65% of Swedes supporting it, whilst only 19% being against it.