Free Republic

The so-called Red-Green Bloc was far ahead, then in the last week, the race tightened up. In the end, the Red-Green Bloc eked out a narrow victory, with 176 seats in the incoming national legislature (the Rikstag). The Right of Center Bloc got 173. A mere 3 seat margin. Challenges remain because the Center Party (which is counted as part of the Red-Green Bloc but actually isn't a left of center party) objects to the Left Party. But, the Center Party cannot simply shift to the Right of Center Bloc, because it also objects to the Swedish Democrats. The Left...

It is extremely close between the red-green bloc and the Tidö parties, according to an election forecast by SVT based on votes actually counted.

The red-green parties are bigger than the Tidö parties in SVT's polling station survey.

The centre-left opposition holds a narrow lead over the ruling right-wing bloc but Prime ⁠Minister Ulf Kristersson's four-party alliance – which includes the far right Sweden Democrats – has been catching up in the final weeks of campaigning.

Sweden’s left-wing parties are running Arabic-language advertisements aimed at immigrant voters ahead of this year’s elections, repeating a strategy used during the 2022 campaign. The advertisements have appeared on Al Kompis, an Arabic-language website aimed at immigrants in Sweden who cannot speak Swedish. Political parties and public authorities have previously used the platform to reach the country’s Arabic-speaking population. Among those advertising during the current campaign are the Social Democrats and the Centre Party. An advertisement featuring Social Democrat leader Magdalena Andersson promises greater investment in healthcare and schools. It links to a dedicated campaign page claiming that the party’s...

After weeks of negotiations, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has failed to form a government... King Frederik X has now asked Liberal Party leader Troels Lund Poulsen to lead talks...Under the King's mandate, Poulsen is now expected to explore the formation of a government that excludes both the Social Democrats and the Moderates, signalling a major shift to the right in Denmark's political landscape.The move came after weeks of difficult coalition talks following Denmark's fragmented March snap election, which saw 12 parties enter parliament, with only three winning more than 10% of the vote.Although Frederiksen's Social Democrats recorded their weakest...

The international attention given to the Denmark Controversy (not the subject of this article) is an opportunity to look at Danish immigration policies. Denmark has some of the toughest immigration policies in the Western world — arguably the best, with the exception of the Visegrad countries, which don’t have much immigration to begin with. Consider this: Mette Frederiksen, current prime minister of Denmark, is not a right-winger, but a member of the center-left Social Democrat party (Socialdemokratiet) . Nevertheless, her party was elected in 2019 on a platform which included stricter immigration policies. In January of 2021, Prime Minister Frederiksen...

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen says Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu has become a “problem,” adding she will try to put pressure on Israel over the Gaza war as her country currently holds the EU presidency. “Netanyahu is now a problem in himself,” Frederiksen says in an interview with the Jyllands-Posten daily, adding that the Israeli government is going “too far.” The center-right leader slams the “absolutely appalling and catastrophic” humanitarian situation in Gaza and new settlement project in the West Bank. “We are one of the countries that wants to increase pressure on Israel, but we have not yet obtained...

In the last daily poll..., the [center-right] coalition leaves the [socialist party] at about eight points away and Chega registers the best result of the entire campaign.

Just a hair over a week ago (ten days to be exact), an official arm of the German government declared the populist Alternative for Germany (AfD) party - now polling as Germany's most popular party in the country - a 'right-wing extremist' group. Yeah, right - so big deal, no? I mean, they've been calling them that forever. Actually, it was a big deal. It made the epithet an official label, opening the party and every last one of its members to constant, sanctioned (instead of surreptitious) government surveillance. It was also the first necessary step in the process of...

LISBON, Portugal (AP) — Portugal’s caretaker government plans to expel some 18,000 foreigners living in the country without authorization, a minister said Saturday in the buildup to a national election.Minister of the Presidency António Leitão Amaro said the center-right government will issue approximately 18,000 notifications to people in the country illegally to leave. The minister said officials will begin next week by asking some 4,500 foreigners to leave voluntarily within 20 days.Portugal will hold an early general election on May 18. Prime Minister Luis Montenegro called the snap ballot in March after his minority government led by his conservative Social...

Germany's governing coalition is in crisis after Chancellor Olaf Scholz fired a key minister and said he would call a vote of confidence in his government early next year. Scholz said he had no trust in Finance Minister Christian Lindner, who leads a rival party that has been part of the coalition along with Scholz's Social Democrats and the Greens. The move means Scholz's government no longer has a majority in parliament. The confidence vote could lead to early elections by March. The so-called "traffic light" coalition led by the chancellor has governed Germany since 2021.

Austria’s Freedom Party has secured the first far-right national parliamentary election victory since the Second World War, beating conservatives in power. Political analysts say the far-right achieved this electoral victory by tapping into voters’ concerns over immigration, inflation, and the war in Ukraine. It must be said, however, that the Freedom Party’s chances of governing are unclear at this stage. Preliminary election results show that the Freedom Party finished first in the election with 29.2 percent of the vote, while the ruling Christian-democratic and liberal-conservative Austrian People’s Party came in second with 26.5 percent of the vote. The center-left in...

Louise Meijer, an MP for Sweden’s centrist Moderate party, apologised to voters for her previous position on open borders. She regrets “making mistakes” by “pleading for openness and refugees [being] welcome”, she says. Meijer says she “changed her mind” over her views, in an opinion piece for Expressen this week. “Now, instead, I am advocating an even stricter migration policy than the one I opposed at the time,” she says. Political sentiments around migration have shifted swiftly in Sweden, with now even leaders of the Social Democrats saying they favour more strict migration policies. Sweden today is a “completely different...

Finland’s center-right National Coalition Party was on course to take power in a general election Sunday after voter concerns about the economic outlook fed dissatisfaction with Social Democrat incumbent Sanna Marin, a star of the European left. With 99 percent of votes counted, the National Coalition Party (NCP) under the leadership of Petteri Orpo had secured 48 of Finland’s 200 parliamentary seats, pushing Marin’s party into third place with 43. The far-right Finns Party was second with 46 seats. The defeat of Marin would represent the latest blow for the European left with Germany’s Olaf Scholz under pressure at home...

Europe to send modern armoured vehicles as Russia prepares new mobilisation Kyiv and allies have been calling on Germany to send Leopard 2 battle tanks Germany has been reluctant, but foreign minister has signalled shift if position Germany would not block Poland sending its Leopard 2 battle tanks to Ukraine, its foreign minister said, in a blow for Putin and his invading forces. Ukrainian officials have been calling on Western allies to supply them the modern German-made armour for months, but Germany has held back from sending them or allowing other Nato countries to do so. In apparent shift, Annalena...

The far right appears close to causing an earthquake in Swedish politics, the Sweden Democrats becoming the country’s second-largest party while the wider rightwing bloc that it leads edged towards a slim victory over the incumbent centre-left. Exit polls on Sunday night at first suggested a narrow victory for the Social Democrats and their centre-left allies. But as the votes were counted the tally swung towards the right. With more than 90% of the vote counted, the right bloc of four parties had a share of the vote corresponding to 176 of 349 seats in parliament, with the left bloc...

Pressure was mounting on Germany to up its game over the war in Ukraine on Tuesday as Kyiv snubbed the country's president and Chancellor Olaf Scholz was accused of a weak response to the crisis. On a visit to Poland, President Frank-Walter Steinmeier admitted he had offered to visit Ukraine with other EU leaders, but Kyiv had told him he was not welcome right now. "I was prepared to do this, but apparently, and I must take note of this, this was not wanted in Kyiv," Steinmeier told reporters. Steinmeier, a former foreign minister, has faced growing criticism since Russia...

BERLIN (AP) — Members of Germany's biggest opposition party, the center-right Christian Democratic Union of former Chancellor Angela Merkel, have chosen prominent conservative Friedrich Merz as its new leader, the party said Friday. Merz's election with a strong mandate appears to mark at least a symbolic break with the Merkel era. Making his third run for the CDU's top post, he took 62.1% support in a ballot of the party's membership to beat two centrist contenders. A party convention next month will have to sign off officially on the membership vote, but that should only be a formality. Armin Laschet,...

Germany’s incoming government, led by the center-left Social Democrats (SPD), were pressed to clarify their foreign policy priorities at a press conference on Tuesday. Having officially signed a three-party coalition agreement, Chancellor-designate Olaf Scholz and the rest of his Cabinet members are expected to take office on Wednesday after a vote and swearing-in ceremony in the German parliament. Scholz put Europe in focus as he fielded questions on Russia, China and the United States alongside Greens co-leader and incoming vice chancellor Robert Habeck as well as Free Democrat (FDP) chief and incoming Finance Minister Christian Lindner. Strengthening the European Union...