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Via The Local:
Swedish voters narrowly re-elected the governing centre-right Alliance coalition, but stopped short of giving it another majority, while the far-right Sweden Democrats were voted into parliament for the first time.
Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt's coalition government won 49.1 percent of the vote, while the left-wing opposition won 45.1 percent of the vote, with the Sweden Democrats garnered 4.6 percent, enough to enter parliament, exit polls by Swedish public television showed.
The polls suggested the centre-right coalition would be short of a majority of seats in parliament, paving the way for the far-right to play kingmaker in the narrowly split house.
(more)
Update:
Still based on exit polls (SE), 48% of Sweden Democrats voters say they're right-wingers, 18% say they're left-wingers and 34% say they're neither.
Update 2:
Via the Local:
Sweden Democratic leader Jimmie Åkesson promised to not cause problems as near final results showed it could be a kingmaker in a hung parliament.
"We won't cause problems," Åkesson told a crowd of exhalted supporters who chanted his nameas near final results handed him a score of 5.7 percent. "We will take responsibility. That is my promise to the Swedish people. I am overwhelmed and it is hard to collect my thoughts. Today, we have written political history."
At 31, Åkesson has led the party since 2005. He recalled a tough election, saying his party had been excluded from the public debate.
"We were exposed to censorship, we were exposed to a medieval boycott, they...excluded us. We were denied advertising in many newspapers, we were in
every possible way treated as something other than a political party," he
scolded, sending a wave of booing through the crowd.
Åkesson stressed the party, with its new position in parliament, had four year to affect Swedish politics.
(more)
