Tidö parties vow to keep fighting despite polling gap

The Tidö parties trail the opposition by 10 percentage points in SVT and Verian’s August poll, but their leaders say they are not concerned. The poll was reported by SVT with 25 days remaining before the 2026 election.

Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson told SVT that it was “pointless to speculate” about the reasons behind the result.

“In the last election, we were behind in every poll, including on election day, but we won. It will go up and down. We are experienced,” Kristersson told the news agency TT.

Swedish election researcher Henrik Ekengren Oscarsson said it was expected that there had been no major changes during the summer.

“Many voters are probably taking notice now that the digital voting cards are arriving, and those who do not follow politics all the time now want to familiarise themselves with it,” he told the news agency.

Sweden Democrats leader Jimmie Åkesson said the parties had four weeks to reverse the figures.

“I believe it can be done, and I have a lot of faith in what we have done. I want to believe that the Swedish people want to see a continuation of the direction we have begun, so I will keep fighting now,” he said.

Christian Democrats leader Ebba Busch said voters were only now beginning to make their decisions in earnest during the election campaign.

“We just have to shift up another gear. I am prepared to do that,” she said.

Liberal leader Simona Mohamsson, whose party is well below the electoral threshold, said she did not expect voters to give the party “a pat on the back” for the policies it had implemented so far.

“I do not think we should panic. Instead, we should show what more we want to do,” she said.

How the poll was conducted

Verian’s voter barometer is based on about 3,000 completed interviews with members of the Sifo panel, which is recruited through random, nationally representative samples. The panel has about 85,000 participants.

The sample covers people aged 18 to 84. The survey is supplemented by telephone interviews with people aged 85 and above.

Respondents were asked: “Which party would you vote for if there were an election today?”

The response rate is around 40 percent. Respondents are checked to ensure they represent different demographic groups, including gender, age, region, education and party preferences in the previous election.

The August poll was conducted from 3 to 16 August 2026.