Poll: Alliance retains solid lead

The four Alliance parties retained the support of voters and lead over the red-greens with 4.6 percentage points, according to the latest voter poll by Novus Opinion.

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The four parties polled a total 49 percent, a slight rise from 48.9 percent in the previous poll. The Moderates, Liberal Party and Centre Party all increased while the Christian Democrats declined by 1.2 points.

The Social Democrats remained at last week's level of 30.3 percent with the Green Party and Left Party dropping 0.1 points apiece. The three party coalition polled a total of 44.4 percent.

The far-right Sweden Democrats polled 4.7 percent, the same result as last week and sufficient to claim seats in parliament if the election were to be held today.

"Both the blocs are doing what they can to see that the political debate is conducted in their own backyard," Novus Opinion wrote in a statement.

The Red-Greens presented their joint election manifesto on Tuesday with Social Democrat leader Mona Sahlin arguing that the differences are not about spending, but about values.

"With today's (Tuesday's) election manifesto from the opposition, the Red-Greens hope that the discussion will be moved to quality within welfare services and to equity issues. While the Alliance wants the discussion to focus on jobs, taxes and the economy."

The difference between the blocs is categorised as statistically significant. The Novus Opinion poll is undertaken on behalf of the TV4 Nyheterna news programme.

The Novus Opinion/TV4 Nyheterna poll is one of the larger polls carried out in Sweden and is undertaken monthly.