Article written by Alesia Rudnik & The Fix Research & Advisory
To see what shaped Sweden's political conversation before the election, The Fix Research & Advisory analysed almost 88,000 political articles (opinions, news and editorials) from 11 Swedish news outlets between August 2025 and August 2026.
Kristersson dominated the coverage
Ulf Kristersson had a substantial head start on his political rivals when it came to media attention. The prime minister was mentioned in 8 percent of all the articles analysed. Kristersson being the most covered politician is hardly surprising. What stands out is the gap between him and the others.
Sweden Democrat leader Jimmie Åkesson appeared in 3 percent of articles, followed by Social Democrat leader Magdalena Andersson (3 percent). Christian Democrat leader Ebba Busch and Liberal leader Simona Mohamsson completed the top five.
The pattern was similar for political parties. The governing once dominated the coverage. The four Tidö parties appeared together in 17 percent of articles. The Sweden Democrats and the Social Democrats appeared in 7 percent each, followed by the Moderates. By contrast, the Social Democrat-led opposition bloc appeared in just 2 percent. Note that this data includes only articles that focused on the bloc as a whole, so not articles that included one or more of the parties within the bloc.
Being in the spotlight is not the same as getting good press
Kristersson may have received the most attention, but he did not exactly receive glowing coverage. Among the politicians who appeared frequently enough to compare, Defence Minister Pål Jonson had the most favourable coverage. Almost 40 percent of articles about him were positive, compared with 4 percent that were negative. Justice Minister Gunnar Strömmer and Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard also had strongly positive coverage.
Åkesson's coverage was positive in only 17 percent of articles, while 31 percent was negative, which is the most negative among the leading politicians.
The picture was similar for the parties. The Greens had the most positive coverage, with 33 percent positive and 20 percent negative.
The Sweden Democrats had the least positive coverage: 14 percent was positive, compared with 37 percent negative. The parties supporting the government through the Tidö Agreement also received more negative than positive coverage.
The Social Democrat-led opposition bloc was different. Almost two-thirds of its coverage was neutral. This is partly because the opposition was often mentioned in stories without being the main focus.
Crime was everywhere. So was foreign policy
The biggest highlight of the year, however, was not a politician. Foreign policy, defence and security made up 18 percent of political coverage during the year. Crime and public safety accounted for another 17 percent. The campaign and democratic process – for 17 percent.
Policing, courts, and sentencing were the biggest storyline, making up 10 percent of coverage. Campaigning, political leaders, and debates followed at 9 percent. Gang and violent crime accounted for 7 percent, while EU and international affairs unrelated to migration made up 6 percent.
Housing, welfare and social policy got marginal media coverage. That does not mean these issues were ignored by journalists. But compared with crime, security and foreign policy, they received far less attention over the year.
There was no single 'Swedish media agenda'
It would also be misleading to talk about "the Swedish media" as if all news organisations were covering the election and campaign in the same way. They weren't.
At Dagens ETC, 28 percent of political coverage focused on the campaign and democratic process. At SVT Nyheter, crime and public safety accounted for 21 percent. TV4 devoted 27 percent of its political coverage to foreign policy and defence.
The differences were also visible in coverage of individual politicians. Kristersson appeared in 11 percent of Aftonbladet's political coverage, compared with 3 percent at SVT Nyheter. The Tidö parties ranged from 11 percent of coverage at SVT to 23 percent at Dagens ETC.
So the picture of the election depended, to some extent, on which outlet you followed. Aftonbladet readers saw much more of Kristersson, while Dagens ETC gave more space to the Tidö parties. SVT put less emphasis on both.
The agenda changed as Election Day got closer
The focus of political coverage changed over the years. Foreign policy was at its highest in January 2026, when it made up 31 percent of coverage.
Migration peaked at 14 percent in February, driven in part by a series of high-profile deportation stories. One of the biggest was the case of Emanuel, an eight-month-old baby born in Sweden who received a deportation order to Iran even though his parents had permission to work and live in Sweden. The case was covered by Sveriges Radio, Aftonbladet, Expressen, DN and Svenska Dagbladet, and drew comments from government ministers.
Interestingly enough, coverage of migration as a topic was mostly linked to crime as an adjacent topic and to right-leaning politicians.
By June, coverage of the campaign and democratic process had risen to 27 percent, reaching 32 percent in the final stretch before the election. Over the same period, foreign policy fell to 8 percent.
As Election Day came closer, the campaign itself took up more and more of the coverage, while some of the issues that had dominated earlier in the year received less attention.
What does the coverage tell us?
The data shows a political news agenda shaped strongly by security and foreign policy. Foreign policy and migration were tied to particular events, while crime remained a major topic across the year.
The focus of the coverage also changed as the election got closer. More stories began to centre on party leaders, debates and the campaign itself, while some of the policy issues that had dominated earlier in the year received less attention.
The data also shows that a spike in media coverage can reflect a major political development, but it can also be driven by a single event, controversy or campaign story, as with deportation stories of February 2026.
The Fix Research & Advisory analysed 87,917 political articles (opinions, news and editorials) published between August 18th 2025 and August 18th 2026 by 11 Swedish news outlets: Aftonbladet, Dagens ETC, Dagens Nyheter, Expressen, Göteborgs-Posten, Omni, SVT Nyheter, Svenska Dagbladet, Sveriges Radio, Sydsvenskan and TV4. The Fix's FAME text-analysis system then narrowed the final-year sample to 87,917 articles dealing substantively with the election or Sweden's wider political agenda.
Comments (1)