Swedish Christian Democrats Overtake Center in Latest Ipsos Poll

(Bloomberg) -- Sweden’s Christian Democrats are now bigger than the Center Party in the latest poll by Ipsos, as voter preferences change amid a struggle to form a viable government following September’s inconclusive election.

The Christian Democrats would get 8 percent of the votes if an election was held today, the poll, published in Dagens Nyheter, showed. That’s up 3 percentage points since the poll last month. Support for the Center Party, led by Annie Loof, at the same time declined to 7 percent from 10 percent.

Sweden still doesn’t have a government after election gains by the nationalist Sweden Democrats left neither of the political blocs with a majority.

While the Center is a member of the Moderate-led center-right Alliance coalition, it voted against Moderate leader Ulf Kristersson as new prime minister out of concern a cabinet led by him would have to rely on the Sweden Democrats for support. The Center then negotiated with the Social Democrats but rejected its leader Stefan Lofven as prime minister after those talks failed.

Sweden Moves Step Closer to New Election as Lofven Loses PM Vote

Here are the results of the Ipsos poll of 1,537 people on Dec. 5-16:

• Moderates supported by 18 percent versus 18 percent in November
• Center Party backed by 7 percent versus 10 percent; that’s the lowest level recorded in a DN/Ipsos poll since May 2016
• Christian Democrats supported by 8 percent versus 5 percent
• Liberals backed by 4 percent versus 5 percent
• Social Democrats supported by 32 percent versus 28 percent; that’s the highest level recorded in a DN/Ipsos poll since January 2015
• Left Party backed by 8 percent versus 8 percent
• Greens supported by 4 percent versus 4 percent
• Sweden Democrats backed by 18 percent versus 20 percent
• Center-right Alliance supported by 37 percent versus 38 percent
• Red-green bloc backed by 44 percent versus 41 percent

To contact the reporter on this story: Niklas Magnusson in Stockholm at nmagnusson1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Jonas Bergman at jbergman@bloomberg.net, Amanda Billner, Niklas Magnusson

©2018 Bloomberg L.P.