Social Democrats return to top of Swedish politics

The Social Democrats have regained their position as Sweden's largest political party, according to a new poll, helping Sweden's three centre-left opposition parties amass more combined support than the centre-right Alliance government.

• Löfven lifts Social Democrats in poll results (19 Feb 12)
• Rise in polls 'Löfven-effect': political expert (13 Feb 12)
• Löfven takes over: 'our values are timeless' (27 Jan 12)

Support for the Social Democrat party rose by 6.5 percent to 32.5 percent in a poll carried out by the United Minds consulting firm and published on Monday in the Aftonbladet newspaper.

Fredrik Reinfeldt's Moderate Party, meanwhile, saw its support drop by 3.4 percent to 29.3 percent.

According to the United Minds poll results, the Social Democrats, along with the Left and Green parties, have support of 47.6 percent of the voters, compared to 44.4 percent for the four parties of the centre-right Alliance government.

The Social Democrats also received a poll boost on Monday with a YouGov poll showing support for the party rising by 7.7 percent to 29.6 percent. While the Moderates lost support of 3.7 percent of the voters, the party remains Sweden's largest, according to the YouGov poll, commanding support of 32.1 percent.

However, the YouGov poll, published in newspaper Metro, also shows the three centre-left opposition parties with more support among voters, 47.3 percent, than the governing parties, which together have support of 46.6 percent.

Monday's poll results continue a trend of rising popularity for the Social Democrats following the selection in January of Stefan Löfven to lead the party.

Party secretary Carin Jämtin cited several possible explanations for the party's recent poll success, especially the fact that the party's policies are no longer being overshadowed by personnel issues, she told Aftonbladet.

Jonas Hinnfors, a political science professor at the University of Gothenburg, echoed a similar theme in explaining the resurgence of the Social Democrats in the polls.

"You can all it the Löfven-effect, but it's probably less the person than the fact that things have calmed down within the party," he told Metro.

"Simply the fact that the news flow isn't focused on the party's problems and conflicts has prompted many who left the party to come back."