Yesterday 6,328,643 (84.4%) of the Swedish electorate voted and created what pundit's call
"an interesting parliamentary situation", others (like myself) would rather call it a royal mess.
Swedish politics has for the last two decades been dominated by two parliamentary "blocks". One side, called "the red/green mess", consisting of the Social Democratic Party and the Green Party with additional support from the Left Party. The other side, called"the Alliance", consisting of the Moderate Party (previously Right Party), the Christian Democratic Party, the Center Party, and the Liberals.
The blocks have over time been fairly even, with the tides turning one way or the other and splitting the 349 seats of the Swedish parliament in various ways.
Three elections ago the Sweden Democrats walked on to the parliamentary scene. First in a small way, then increasing four years ago and finally increasing a bit again this year (although far from their own expectations). They were hoping to become the largest or at least the second largest party in the parliament and get close to 25% of the votes. That did not happen!
Election Night ended with the red/green mess having 144 seats in parliament, the Alliance with 143 seats and the Sweden Democrats with 62. All the other parties stated emphatically that they would have nothing to do with the Sweden Democrats, nor work with them or rely on their support in any way.
None of the blocks can form a government with reliable support without someone from the opposing block. This will hopefully lead to the end of the bloody ironclad political blocks, but it still remains to see how it will turn-out.
So there are still some final votes to be tallied, about 150, 000, which will happen on Wednesday. However, even if a seat could be moved one of the blocks to the other it will not in any way change the situation.
It will be two interesting weeks to follow the maneuverings of the politicians until the parliament reconvenes to elect a prime minister.
