Swedes head to polls in close-run election

Agencies | Stockholm

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Swedes voted yesterday in an election pitting the incumbent centre-left Social Democrats against a right-wing bloc that has embraced the anti-immigration Sweden Democrats as it tries to win back power after eight years in opposition.

With steadily growing numbers of shootings unnerving voters, campaigning has seen parties battle to be the toughest on gang crime, while surging inflation and the energy crisis in the wake of the invasion of Ukraine have increasingly taken centre-stage.

"I'm fearing very much a repressive, very right-wing government coming," said Malin Ericsson, 53, a travel consultant outside a voting station in central Stockholm.

Opinion polls show the centre-left running neck-and-neck with the right-wing bloc and suggest the Sweden Democrats will be the second biggest party behind the Social Democrats, overtaking the conservative Moderates.