The election race for the Swedish parliament has tightened as Liberals cleared the 4% threshold required to win seats, a new Novus poll has shown.
According to the poll, Sweden’s ruling right-wing bloc has narrowed the gap with the centre-left opposition, Caliber.Az reports, citing Reuters.
The general election is scheduled for Sunday, September 13.
Earlier opinion polls had pointed to a near-certain victory for the opposition, led by Social Democrats leader Magdalena Andersson. However, recent surveys suggest that Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson’s government, which has been in power since 2022, could still retain control.
The Novus poll, published by commercial broadcaster TV4, showed 50.3% support for the four centre-left parties, compared with 47.9% for the three-party government coalition and its support party, the anti-immigration Sweden Democrats.
The gap between the two blocs narrowed by 0.2 percentage points from Novus’ previous poll.
The junior coalition partner Liberals rose to 4.3% from 3.3%, surpassing the threshold for parliamentary representation and easing concerns that the party could lose its 16 seats and deprive the coalition of its majority.
Three weeks ago, the centre-left held a 10-percentage-point lead in a poll by another agency, a margin political scientists at the time described as nearly impossible to overcome before election day.
Novus surveyed 2,888 voters between September 1 and September 5.
By Bakhtiyar Abbasov
