Center Party surges as opposition keeps lead in Swedish poll

The Centre Party has risen sharply in SVT/Verian’s latest opinion poll, reaching 8 per cent support, SVT reported. The party has not recorded a higher figure in the polling firm’s surveys since November 2021, when Annie Lööf was its leader.

The party rose from 5.4 per cent in June to 8 per cent in August, the largest increase among the parties surveyed. Verian’s head of opinion, Per Söderpalm, said the Centre Party was taking voters from several parties, especially the Social Democrats and the Liberals.

“The message that they want to be the opposition’s liberal voice may have appealed to a certain type of centrist voter,” Söderpalm said.

The opposition parties, comprising the Social Democrats, Greens, Centre Party and Left Party, retained a 10 percentage point lead in the August poll.

Centre Party leader Elisabeth Thand Ringqvist has said in recent days that she wants to form a government with the Social Democrats and Christian Democrats. During Monday’s party leaders’ debate hosted by Expressen, Liberal leader Simona Mohamsson extended an offer to cooperate, but Ringqvist rejected it.

Asked whether cooperation with the Left Party would be necessary after the election, Ringqvist said no.

“My job is to make us large enough that the Left Party is not needed in forming a government, and that is why I see new interest in a government in the centre,” she told SVT.

After the debate, the Tidö party leaders highlighted divisions among the opposition.

“It is completely clear that they do not have a united alternative at all,” Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson of the Moderate Party said.