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Who will Swedes vote for in the European election? A new poll gives us an idea

The Local Sweden
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Who will Swedes vote for in the European election? A new poll gives us an idea
The European Parliament in Strasbourg. Photo: Fredrik Persson/TT

Sweden only recently got a new government after its national election. Now, a survey indicates which parties Swedes plan to vote for in the upcoming European elections.

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You would be forgiven if you thought Swedish voters were tired of politics, after more than three months of post-election haggling finally ushered the Social Democrats and Greens back into government earlier this year, thanks to a cross-bloc deal with the Liberals and Centre Party.

But it appears to have had the opposite effect. More than 71 percent of respondents told a recent poll by Swedish newssite Europaportalen that they plan to vote in the upcoming European Parliament elections on May 26th, compared to 53 percent in the same survey five years ago.

In that election, 51 percent of eligible voters ended up actually casting a ballot, which suggests that election turnout will also be higher in this year's European election.

And new survey by pollsters Sifo on behalf of Europaportalen on Thursday gave a first indication of which parties voters will back in the next European election.

The Social Democrats came out as the clear winners of the poll, with 27.5 percent saying they would vote for them. That would be an increase of more than three percentage units on the last European election in 2014, six seats compared to the current five seats.

But the Sweden Democrats grew the most in the poll, with 18 percent throwing their support behind them, which would double their two seats in the European Parliament.

The Moderates came in third, also landing on four seats with 16.4 percent of the vote.

However, more than a third of some 1,500 respondents said they had not yet decided.

Sweden currently has 20 seats in the European Parliament, which will increase to 21 this term, assuming that the UK does leave the EU.

None of Sweden's major parties are running on a platform of leaving the European Union, after both the Left Party and the Sweden Democrats dropped their 'Swexit' pledges.

The full survey results (source: Europaportalen)

Social Democrat Party: 27.5 percent

Sweden Democrat Party: 18 percent

Moderate Party: 16.4 percent

Left Party: 10 percent

Christian Democrat Party: 8.6 percent

Green Party: 6.4 percent

Centre Party: 5.8 percent

Liberal Party: 3.8 percent

Feminist Initiative: 1.2 percent

Others: 2.4 percent

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