Morning opening: When the dust settles (a bit)

Jakub Krupa

Jakub Krupa

Hej from Stockholm as the dust settles (a bit) after a hectic election night.

With 95% of votes counted overnight, the left-leaning opposition bloc – led by Magdalena Andersson’s Social Democrats – has widened its lead to three seats, leading 176 to 173 against the reigning centre-right coalition and their far-right partners in Sweden Democrats.

Social Democrats leader Magdalena Andersson gives a speech during the party´s election watch after the Swedish parliamentary election in Stockholm.
Social Democrats leader Magdalena Andersson gives a speech during the party´s election watch after the Swedish parliamentary election in Stockholm. Photograph: Caisa Rasmussen/BILDBYRÅN/Shutterstock

Formally, the result is not settled yet: there is only some 28,600 votes separating the two blocs, with 6% of the votes yet to be counted – and that includes some 200,000 votes expected to come and be counted only on Wednesday.

Still, the Swedish public broadcaster SVT said last night it was 90% confident that the opposition would clinch the victory, even accounting for all the votes yet to be counted.

There is plenty of time for early exploratory talks: the parliament won’t meet until 28 September, when its due to elect a new speaker, and any votes on who could be the next prime minister can only come after that.

But the process of forming the new government could take weeks if not months leaving Sweden in a state of political limbo at a time of unprecedented geopolitical uncertainty in Europe.

No doubt first text messages, frantic WhatsApp or Signals, and phone calls are already exchanged today.

I will be here to cover all this drama for you.

It’s Monday, 14 September 2026, it’s Jakub Krupa here, and this is Europe Live.

Good morning.

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Key events

PM Kristersson wants to ‘take it easy’ and wait until final results

Perhaps we should all just channel the Swedish PM, Ulf Kristersson, who essentially said this morning he was “going to take it pretty easy” until the final results are in.

Swedish prime minister Ulf Kristersson of the Moderate Party leaves the official residence, Sager House, a day after the Swedish general election in Stockholm, Sweden. Photograph: Claudio Bresciani/EPA

He says there are some conversations scheduled in the meantime – including with fellow coalition leaders this evening – but he essentially wants to see the final results show first.

He also repeats his last night’s suggestion of exploring alternative majorities in the parliament.

One possible option could involve the Centre party switching sides, but it’s not immediately obvious how Kristersson would get them to accept a government with the far-right Sweden Democrats with it.

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