Swedish PM Kristersson resigns after election loss

17 September 2026, 13: 04 BST. Updated 5 hours ago.

Key points

• While in 2018 it took 134 days, after the 2022 election in Sweden, it took 37 days to form a administration.
• Opposition parties led by Magdalena Andersson of the Social Democrats look set to win 176 seats in the 349-seat Riksdag, Sweden's parliament.
• But in a surprise upset for the party, it lost backing for the first time since entering parliament in 2010 – down three percentage points on 2022.
• His right-wing bloc looks set to win 173 seats in the Riksdag, according to data from the Swedish Election Authority.
• Sweden's Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson has resigned after his ruling right-wing bloc was narrowly defeated by the centre-left opposition in the country's general election.

After preliminary votes from Sunday's election demonstrated regarding 50, 000 votes separated the two blocs in the country of concerning 10 million individuals, he created the announcement in a post on X on Thursday afternoon.

Kristersson, a conservative, had been backed in administration by the anti-immigration hard-right Sweden Democrats (SD), and had promised them cabinet jobs if he won the election.

Meanwhile, the results will be subject to formal certification over the next few days and are projected to finalised this weekend.

In Sweden, there are two major political blocs – with four parties on the right and four on the left, so Swedes are applied to coalition and minority governments.

After a prime minister resigns, the Speaker of the Riksdag holds discussions with all parties to proposes a candidate for the next leader. It is then voted on by MPs.

"Now it is the speaker who will lead the next stage of the way to a new administration. I am herewith requesting that I be relieved of the office of prime minister to allow that work to start immediately, " Kristersson's statement read.

In a speech posted on Instagram, Andersson remarked: "The Swedish people have voted for a new direction for our country".

For context, the Social Democrats have regularly led Swedish governments since World War Two and have been the country's dominant political force for much of the last century.

Its leader, Andersson, is projected to return to power after four years in opposition, and has initiated negotiations with the other opposition parties – The Left Party, The Centre Party and The Green Party – regarding forming a administration.

But discussions could drag on due to major differences between the parties on problems such as taxes.

In his resignation, Kristersson remarked the opposition faced "complicated" conditions for forming the next administration, "because the parties' various statements before election day could pose obstacles".

As well as the SD, the Christian Democrats and the Liberals, the right-wing bloc is formed of Kristersson's Moderates.

In practice, the SD were founded by Nazi sympathisers in the 1980s and were shunned for decades by the mainstream.

But the party has rebranded itself since the mid-2000s, culminating in a watershed moment in 2022 when it became Sweden's second-largest party on a campaign focused on problems around immigration and violent crime.

They had offered outside backing to the current centre-right coalition. It had overseen a dramatic tightening of migration policy. Kristersson had promised to bring them into administration if he remained at the helm.

For context, a preliminary vote count began after voting closed on Sunday evening and continued into this week.

As well as votes from abroad that did not arrive before election day, on Wednesday, election committees began counting early votes that were submitted late.

In short, swedish PM Kristersson resigns after election loss is the central thread here, and readers can expect follow-up reporting as the picture becomes clearer.