(STOCKHOLM) — Sweden’s ruling party was headed for its worst showing in decades as voters flocked Sunday to an anti-immigrant party with white supremacist roots that was poised to become the third-biggest force in parliament.

With more than four-fifths of ballots counted, Sweden’s national election commission reported the governing Social Democrats had 28.1 percent of the vote, making it likely to lose a significant number of seats despite emerging with the most support.

The Moderates party was next at 19.2 percent, while the far-right Sweden Democrats that before the election inspired fear of an anti-migrant backlash that would produce a dramatic ideological swing had 17.9 percent.

The Sweden Democrats received 13 percent of vote in the last election held four years ago.

The results Sunday made it unlikely any single party would secure a majority of the 175 seats in the Riksdagen, Sweden’s parliament. It could take weeks or months of coalition talks before the next government is formed.

Both the left-leaning bloc led by the Social Democrats and the center-right bloc have said they would refuse to consider the Sweden Democrats as a potential coalition partner.

Sunday’s election was the first in Sweden since its government in 2015 allowed 163,000 migrants into the Scandinavian country with a population of 10 million. The number was far lower than the asylum-seekers Germany accepted that year, but the highest per capita of any European nation.

The Sweden Democrats — led by Jimmie Akesson — worked to soften its neo-Nazi image while helping to break down longstanding taboos on what Swedes could say openly about immigration and integration without being shunned as racists

The potential of a surge by the party had many Swedes worried about an erosion of the humanitarian values that have long been a foundation of their country’s identity.

“This election is a referendum about our welfare,” Prime Minister Stefan Lofven said. “It’s also about decency, about a decent democracy … and not letting the Sweden Democrats, an extremist party, a racist party, get any influence in the government.”

At the party’s rally on Saturday, Akesson strongly criticized Lofven’s government for “prioritizing” the cause of immigrants over the needs of citizens.

“This government we have had now . they have prioritised, during these four years, asylum-seekers,” Akesson said, giving an exhaustive list of things he says the government has failed to do for Swedish society because of migrants.</s>STOCKHOLM – Sweden headed for a hung parliament after an election on Sunday that saw support for the nationalist Sweden Democrats surge, as one of Europe’s most liberal nations turned right amid fears over immigration.

Far-right parties have made spectacular gains throughout Europe in recent years as anxieties grow over national identity and the effects of globalisation and immigration following armed conflict in the Middle East and North Africa.

In Sweden, an influx of 163,000 asylum seekers in 2015 - the most in Europe in relation to the country’s population of 10 million - has polarized voters and fractured the long-standing political consensus.

With almost all districts having reported, the ruling centre-left Social Democrats and Greens and their Left Party parliamentary allies had 40.6% of the vote, while the opposition centre-right Alliance was at 40.3%.

That gave the centre-left 144 seats in the 349-seat parliament against 142 for the Alliance, suggesting weeks of uncertainty before a workable government can be formed.

The Sweden Democrats, a party with roots in the white supremacist fringe, won 17.6% and 63 seats, up from 12.9% and 49 seats in the last election four years ago, the biggest gain by any party in Sweden’s parliament, the Riksdag.

The results were largely in line with the conventional opinion polls tracked by Reuters in the run-up to the election but well below some online surveys that had predicted the Sweden Democrats could become the largest party.

While the results also fell short of leader Jimmie Akesson’s predictions of 20% of the vote or more, he told a party rally it was nevertheless the winner of the election.

“We will gain huge influence over what happens in Sweden during the coming weeks, months and years,” Akesson told party colleagues.

Akesson hopes his party, which wants Sweden to leave the European Union and freeze immigration, can play a decisive role in negotiations over forming a government.

He called on Ulf Kristersson, the centre-right Alliance’s candidate for the premiership, to choose between seeking support from the Sweden Democrats for an Alliance government or to accept another four years of Social Democrat Prime Minister Stefan Lofven.

Kristersson called on Lofven to resign, but rebuffed Akesson.

“We have been completely clear during the whole election. The Alliance will not govern or discuss how to form a government with the Sweden Democrats,” he said.

The Sweden Democrats, shunned by all the other parties since entering parliament in 2010, have promised to sink any Cabinet that refuses to give them a say in policy, particularly on immigration.

Lofven said he would not resign and called for cross-party cooperation to resolve the political impasse.

“There is no side with a majority. Then it is only natural to work across the political divide to make it possible to govern Sweden,” Lofven said.

The election will add to concerns in Brussels as the European Union enters campaign mode ahead of the European Parliament election in May, which could give more voice to eurosceptic groups and thwart efforts at closer EU integration.

The record levels of those seeking asylum in 2015 magnified worries about a welfare system in Sweden that many voters already believe is in crisis, even though refugee numbers have fallen sharply since then.

Lengthening queues for critical operations, shortages of doctors and teachers and the failures of police to deal with inner-city gang violence have shaken faith in the “Swedish model”, built on a promise of comprehensive welfare and social inclusion.

Akesson had labeled the vote a choice between immigration and welfare in a campaign that was unusually antagonistic.

Voting in central Stockholm, student Katze Collmar, 32, said the campaign had been “really unpleasant”.

“It feels like Sweden could take a step in this election that we won’t be able to recover from very easily.”

Lofven could hold on to power unless the Alliance accepts some kind of support from the Sweden Democrats, at a likely cost of the populists having more say over immigration policy.

But he would need to overcome decades of acrimony between the two blocs and get support from parties on the center-right, something they have ruled out.</s>Swedish political parties face weeks of haggling to form a government after voters delivered a hung parliament on Sunday, with the anti-immigration Sweden Democrats saying they hold the balance of power.

A preliminary allocation of parliamentary seats gave the centre-left bloc – uniting the minority governing Social Democrat and Green parties with the Left Party – 144 seats versus 143 for the centre-right Alliance bloc.

The Sweden Democrats, who want to leave the European Union, won 62 seats, up from 49 in the 349-seat Riksdag where 175 seats are needed to form a majority.

Doing a deal with them would give either bloc a majority but the mainstream parties have ruled out cooperating with a party which has roots in the white supremacist fringe.

Both blocs have declared themselves victors in the election, but need additional support to form a viable government without the Sweden Democrats, who want influence over immigration policy.

There are a number of ways out of the tangle.

The Alliance of the Moderates, Centre, Liberals and Christian Democrats looks set to be slightly smaller than the centre-left. But it will hope for backing from the Sweden Democrats to oust Prime Minister Stefan Lofven and to install Moderate leader Ulf Kristersson as his replacement.

However, a formal agreement with the Sweden Democrats would very likely see the Centre and Liberal parties, who want looser immigration policies, jump ship.

It is not clear whether the Centre and Liberal parties would take part in a government that had no formal support from the Sweden Democrats but in practice relied on their votes to install a prime minister.

On Monday, Sweden Democrats leader Jimmie Akesson invited the Moderates and Christian Democrats to formal negotiations but was quickly rebuffed.

Akesson said his party would vote against any government that did not give it a say in policy.

The Social Democrats and Greens could retain power in the unlikely event that Prime Minister Lofven survives a mandatory vote on whether to replace him.

Lofven said he would remain in office in the coming weeks and called for cooperation across the political divide.

When voting for a prime minister in parliament, a proposal is passed unless a majority of all 349 lawmakers vote against. This has allowed minority governments to rule.

The Alliance would need the Sweden Democrats to back a vote to oust Lofven and install Kristersson.

The Alliance could join a grand coalition with the Social Democrats and possibly the Greens to exclude the Sweden Democrats. The Left Party, Sweden’s former Communist party, would also be left out.

But the Moderates – the biggest party in the Alliance – are not interested in cooperating with the Social Democrats and such a deal would also raise questions about democratic accountability. Voters might see the Sweden Democrats as the country’s only opposition party.

The Moderates could form a one-party government but that would require support from the Sweden Democrats as well as the smaller centre-right parties.

Moderate leader Kristersson has ruled this out, and the Centre and Liberal parties would probably not go along with the idea if the Sweden Democrats were given any significant say over policy while remaining outside the government.

Parliament opens on Sept. 25. If Lofven is ousted, the speaker is allowed to give a maximum of four prime ministerial candidates the opportunity to form a government. If they all fail, fresh elections must be called. There is no formal time limit for negotiations, but the deadline for the budget is Nov. 15.

If no new government is in place by then, the current government, continuing as caretakers, would put forward a budget until a new cabinet can take office.</s>You would never find a scene like this during a British general election. Outside a railway station in the Stockholm suburbs, all the main parties have little cabins neatly lined up like exhibitors at a trade show.

Each offers coffee, literature and a chair for those who might want a longer chat. Superficially, it is all very polite, very democratic — very Swedish, in fact.

Today, though, all the attention is focused on one stand. And there is a tense atmosphere. A young crowd, mainly students, have surrounded the stall of the nationalist Sweden Democrats.

‘Will you deport all people like me — who don’t look white?’ asks Joel Svensson, 26, pointing his finger at a middle-aged man.

Half-Colombian, half-Gambian, Joel has lived in Sweden for 15 years, works at Foot Locker, speaks Swedish, pays his (hefty) taxes and is increasingly agitated.

‘Will you deport all Muslims?’ he shouts.

‘Only those who don’t have citizenship and don’t obey the law,’ says the party worker. Two policemen turn up in case things escalate but they do not. Eventually, Joel and his group walk off but he is still angry. Sweden, he tells me, has become much more racist in recent years.

‘Things are changing here and they want to blame someone. People just don’t understand that they need immigrants like me,’ he says.

However, there is a similar sense of frustration back at the Sweden Democrats’ hut. ‘People tear up our leaflets and tell us to **** off,’ says retired accountant Dan Strom, 69, a member of the party for three years. ‘I get used to it. But what really upsets people these days is all the crime.’

Crime and immigration are dominating an election which has become so un-Swedish that many people talk openly about a national identity crisis.

Gangland shootings are so commonplace they barely make the news. A new fad for synchronised car-burnings has been making the headlines instead.

All of it is blamed — however unfairly — on immigrants in a country where 20 per cent of the population were born elsewhere. Now comes fresh data (unearthed last month by state TV) that rape is on the increase, that nearly 60 per cent of all convicted rapists since 2015 have been foreign-born and that 40 per cent had been in Sweden for less than a year.

It helps explain why the Sweden Democrats have gone so swiftly from the fringes to the political mainstream. Just three years ago, they were social outcasts. Now, they could be the largest single party when Sweden goes to the polls on Sunday while the centre-left Social Democrats, who lead the current coalition government, are on track for their worst result since before ABBA were born.

Though the Sweden Democrats’ roots are in neo-Nazi yobbery during the Eighties, they have succeeded in reinventing themselves as an authentic family-friendly voice of Nordic conservatism. The old fascistic torch logo has been replaced with a cute hippy-style flower, giving their campaign a surreal soap powder feel.

At the last election, they doubled their vote and won 49 of the 349 seats in parliament. In tomorrow’s election, they are expected to win 20 to 25 per cent and could well hold the balance of power in a fractious parliament where no one party will have control.

Dull, worthy, Swedish politics have suddenly got both alarming and interesting.

For they are following the same pattern which we have seen across Europe recently as anti-immigration parties wreak political havoc in Holland, France, Germany, Italy, Hungary, Austria, Poland and elsewhere.

Now it is happening in ultra-liberal Sweden, too, which has accepted more migrants per head of population than any EU nation — 250,000 since 2015.

L ast year’s terrorist attack in Stockholm, when a failed asylum-seeker drove a truck through a crowded pedestrian precinct, killing four, still resonates .

For many Swedes, though, this is just part of a wider issue.

As with Trump supporters in America, there are large numbers who feel rejected by a complacent political establishment no longer on their wavelength.

In the Stockholm suburb of Solna, I meet Julia Kronild, the Sweden Democrat MP who would be foreign secretary if they ever formed a government.

Her CV is not what one might expect. A social worker before entering parliament in 2010, her political journey began while she spent a year and half working for a charity in Papua New Guinea. ‘I was an assistant nurse and teacher there. For me, it was important to learn their language and their ways,’ she says.

‘I came back to Sweden and I could see things were changing. We had immigrants coming here and everyone said that we had to change our ways.’

As a former aid worker, Julia says that she is all in favour of foreign aid but that asylum must be sought in the nearest safe nation. ‘I have been to refugee camps and we need to spend more money in those areas, not here,’ she says.

‘We need to take away the pull factors that bring people here. Why is it cheaper for asylum-seekers to get dental care than for the elderly?’

Many dispute these statistics, along with so many other incendiary claims by the Sweden Democrats, but it is a narrative that has taken root.

For decades, Swedish elections were all the same. The Social Democrats would win by a mile and carry on building the Swedish dream: thumping taxes in exchange for cradle-to-grave welfare and just enough money for a modest holiday shack on the coast.

It’s the sort of utopian vision Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, had in mind this week when he talked of pushing up taxes to make Britain less ‘unjust’. The difference is that Sweden grew up accepting the idea that if you give most of your money to the state, the state will spend it wisely. In Britain, we beg to differ. And now the Swedes are having their doubts, too.

‘People used to have a very clear idea of what it meant to be Swedish,’ says Johan Hakelius, editor of the leading news magazine, Fokus. ‘But we now have a political class who don’t realise quite how elitist they are. People turn to the Sweden Democrats, not because they are racist, it’s because they see it as the only party that thinks like they do.’

The other parties accuse the Sweden Democrats of scare tactics. ‘They are painting a very dark picture of Sweden but we need to have faith in the future,’ says Annie Loof, the leader of the (centre-Right) Centre Party.

I meet her at the studios of TV4, Sweden’s equivalent of ITV, where four of the eight main party leaders have come for a live, on-air grilling. Here, too, is Jonas Sjostedt, leader of the Left Party, who called themselves ‘The Communists’ until 1990, another extremist party enjoying a surge in the polls. A former Volvo shop steward and Jeremy Corbyn fan, Jonas tells me that he has Momentum activists on his campaign team and will be speaking at the Labour Party conference.

Perhaps Labour will adopt Jonas’s latest vote-winner: a plan to cut the working day from eight to six hours (that should do wonders for Sweden’s public sector bill). Yet the main media focus at this debate is on the leader of Sweden Democrats, Jimmie Akesson. Just 39, he joined the party as a teenager, wears a trim beard and Harry Potter glasses and is both wary and weary of journalists.

Each day brings fresh scandals about his party — today it’s an MP fiddling his expenses — to which he retorts that no other party is subjected to the same scrutiny. I ask him how it feels to be the man who has made this the most unSwedish election in history.

‘It’s not my ambition to be that guy. They have given me that role,’ he says but his message is uncompromising: ‘If you’re an immigrant, you should become Swedish and be Swedish.’ He rejects comparisons with other extreme European parties — ‘I think we have more of a Nordic society. I don’t think I have that much in common with Le Pen [leader of the French National Front] or AfD [Germany’s hard Right]’ — and tries to present his party as a Swedish UKIP.

‘I’ve met Nigel Farage,’ he says, adding that he likes a pint of British beer and favours a referendum on EU membership, though ‘Swexit’ is not a burning issue now.

Swedes are not sure whether to be flattered or dismayed that the world is taking such an interest in their election.

Today, it remains a delightful place to visit, astonishingly expensive — £9 for a ham sandwich — but also obsessively house-proud. Even walking around a council estate in Rinkeby, the notorious immigrants-only Stockholm district routinely described as a ‘no-go zone’, I fail to spot any graffiti. What’s more, someone has mown neat stripes across the communal lawn. Just days before there was a shooting on the same spot.

What makes this election stranger still is that the economy is in rude health. Unemployment is at a historic low. The ruling Social Democrats should be way out in front. Instead, they face their worst result since World War I.

‘Young people have just forgotten how hard life used to be and how much we have achieved,’ says retired therapist, Inger Hettman, a despairing Social Democrat supporter whom I meet in the town of Nykvarn.

I talk to a number of voters on both the Left and Right who say they are considering a vote for the Sweden Democrats.

Few wish to be named, of course. But Leif, an engineer from Lulea, sums up a common view. He says: ‘I think they are asking the right questions. I’m just not sure whether they would provide the right answers.’

Back in Rinkeby, I ask the local MP why Sweden is so divided. Amir Adan, 33, is half-Somali, half-Swedish and belongs to the Moderates, Sweden’s Tories.

‘Four years ago, we didn’t talk about immigration at all while the only party that did was the Sweden Democrats,’ he says. ‘We should all have talked about it more.’

They are certainly talking about it now.</s>“But it will not happen in cooperation with the Sweden Democrats.” This significantly reduces the probability the centre-right Alliance coalition will secure a Parliamentary majority via an official or unofficial deal with the Sweden Democrats. All major Swedish parties, including those on the right, have ruled out any formal deal with the Sweden Democrats.

The Alliance coalition, led by the Moderate Party, is projected to receive 143 seats with 99 percent of districts counted. It also contains the Liberal Party, Centre Party and Christian Democrats. With the majority of the votes counted, the Liberal Party is sitting on 5.5 percent of the vote. Ahead of the Alliance coalition by just one seat is a left-wing coalition led by current Prime Minister Stefan Lofven, containing the Social Democrats, Green Party and formerly communist Left Party.

Sweden Democrats leader Jimmie Akesson has told reporters he will not support any government which does not give his party influence in the future government. He has also claimed any new government must have majority support in the Riksdag, Sweden’s Parliament, despite the fact Sweden’s electoral system does allow for minority governments. His comments could be interpreted as a call for the centre-right Moderate Party to reach out and make a deal with the Sweden Democrats, which would allow them to gain greater control in the Riksdag. However the Liberal Party leaders intervention makes this extremely difficult, and suggests that any attempt by the Moderate Party to reach an arrangement with the Sweden Democrats would result in the Alliance electoral coalition collapsing.</s>Sweden was headed for a hung parliament last night after a surge by the nationalist Sweden Democrats, a party with neo-Nazi roots.

Sweden was headed for a hung parliament last night after a surge by the nationalist Sweden Democrats, a party with neo-Nazi roots.

In one of Europe's most liberal nations, it was the latest in a series of spectacular gains for far-right parties across the continent.

The gains have come amid growing anxiety over national identity and the effects of globalisation and immigration following armed conflict in the Middle East and North Africa.

In Sweden, an influx of 163,000 asylum seekers in 2015 - the highest in Europe in relation to the country's population of 10 million - has polarised voters and fractured the political consensus.

Partial results, with some 80pc of districts counted, showed the ruling centre-left Social Democrats and Greens and their Left Party allies winning 40.6pc of the vote, while the opposition centre-right Alliance were seen at 40.1pc.

The Sweden Democrats, founded by white supremacists, rose to 17.8pc from 12.9pc in the last election four years ago, in effect securing the balance of power.

Their result looked set to fall short of their own leaders' predictions of a vote of 20pc or more. Nevertheless, their leader Jimmie Akesson told a party rally: "We will gain huge influence over what happens in Sweden during the coming weeks, months and years".

With neither main bloc able to command a majority, the Sweden Democrats - who want the country to leave the EU and put a freeze on immigration - could play a decisive role in negotiations over forming a government.

Those negotiations to thrash out a compromise look set to be complex and drawn-out.

Mr Akesson challenged Ulf Kristersson, the centre-right Alliance's candidate for the premiership, to choose between seeking support from the Sweden Democrats and the incumbent Social Democrat prime minister, Stefan Löfven.

The election will add to the concerns in Brussels as the EU enters campaign mode in the run-up to the European Parliament election in May.

That campaign could end up giving more voice to eurosceptic groups and thwart efforts at closer EU integration.

In Sweden, the record levels of asylum seekers in 2015 magnified worries about a welfare system that many voters already believe is in crisis, even though the numbers of refugees arriving have fallen sharply since then.

Lengthening queues for critical operations, shortages of doctors and teachers and the failures of police to deal with inner-city gang violence have shaken faith in the "Swedish model", built on a promise of comprehensive welfare and social inclusion.

Akesson labelled the vote a choice between immigration and welfare in a campaign that was unusually antagonistic.

Voting in central Stockholm, student Katze Collmar, 32, said the campaign had been "really unpleasant", adding: "It feels like Sweden could take a step in this election that we won't be able to recover from very easily."

Mainstream politicians have so far ruled out co-operation with the Sweden Democrats.

But centre-left and centre-right parties face an uphill battle in trying to form a viable coalition government.</s>Preliminary results show the far-right party secured a record 17.6 percent of the vote and 63 seats, up from 12.9 percent four years ago. Centre-left incumbent Social Democrats (formed of the Social Democrats and Green Party) took a 40.6 percent share, its worst result in years, giving it 144 seats in 349-seat Parliament. Centre-right alliance (the Moderates, Liberals, Centre and Christian Democrats) trailed just behind with 40.3 percent and 142 seats. Sweden Democrats leader Jimmie Akesson said his party were the “real winners” of the election and would act as “kingmakers” in the formation of a new government.

He said: “We will gain huge influence over what happens in Sweden during the coming weeks, months and years.” The anti-EU leader, who wants a “Swexit” referendum, says he will tell the ruling parties “how to govern the country … We strengthen our kingmaker role. We will will have an immense influence over what happens in Sweden in the coming weeks, months, years.” Mr Akesson has demanded a stop to rising immigration after Sweden took in a record 163,000 asylum seekers following the 2015 migrant crisis. Prime Minister Stefan Lofven rebuked calls for his resignation following the hung parliament result and said the moderates needed to unite to keep the Sweden Democrats out of power.

He said: “There is no side with a majority. Then it is only natural to work across the political divide to make it possible to govern Sweden.” The final results will not be confirmed until Wednesday, once overseas votes are counted, but the political deadlock follows 99 percent of confirmed votes. Negotiations could take months with talks expected to be “complicated”, according to Chief Analyst at Nordea Markets Andreas Wallstrom. He added: "We have seen the problems in the past four years with a weak minority government and now we will see the same problems but even more so."

The far-right gains have proved a shocking result for Sweden, usually one of the most liberal nations in Europe. Voters’ sway to the hard right is linked to a concern about rising gang violence in Sweden and fears over globalisation. Mr Lofven’s party could maintain its hold in government with support from the Sweden Democrats in return for input from the populist party about immigration policies. But following the result he said the moderate parties have a “moral responsibility” to shun the Sweden Democrats and form their own ruling coalition.</s>STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Swedish political parties face weeks of haggling to form a government after voters delivered a hung parliament on Sunday, with the anti-immigration Sweden Democrats saying they hold the balance of power.

A preliminary allocation of parliamentary seats gave the centre-left bloc - uniting the minority governing Social Democrat and Green parties with the Left Party - 144 seats versus 143 for the centre-right Alliance bloc.

The Sweden Democrats, who want to leave the European Union, won 62 seats, up from 49 in the 349-seat Riksdag where 175 seats are needed to form a majority.

Doing a deal with them would give either bloc a majority but the mainstream parties have ruled out cooperating with a party which has roots in the white supremacist fringe.

Both blocs have declared themselves victors in the election, but need additional support to form a viable government without the Sweden Democrats, who want influence over immigration policy.

There are a number of ways out of the tangle.

The Alliance of the Moderates, Centre, Liberals and Christian Democrats looks set to be slightly smaller than the centre-left. But it will hope for backing from the Sweden Democrats to oust Prime Minister Stefan Lofven and to install Moderate leader Ulf Kristersson as his replacement.

However, a formal agreement with the Sweden Democrats would very likely see the Centre and Liberal parties, who want looser immigration policies, jump ship.

It is not clear whether the Centre and Liberal parties would take part in a government that had no formal support from the Sweden Democrats but in practice relied on their votes to install a prime minister.

On Monday, Sweden Democrats leader Jimmie Akesson invited the Moderates and Christian Democrats to formal negotiations but was quickly rebuffed.

Akesson said his party would vote against any government that did not give it a say in policy.

The Social Democrats and Greens could retain power in the unlikely event that Prime Minister Lofven survives a mandatory vote on whether to replace him.

Lofven said he would remain in office in the coming weeks and called for cooperation across the political divide.

When voting for a prime minister in parliament, a proposal is passed unless a majority of all 349 lawmakers vote against. This has allowed minority governments to rule.

The Alliance would need the Sweden Democrats to back a vote to oust Lofven and install Kristersson.

The Alliance could join a grand coalition with the Social Democrats and possibly the Greens to exclude the Sweden Democrats. The Left Party, Sweden’s former Communist party, would also be left out.

But the Moderates - the biggest party in the Alliance - are not interested in cooperating with the Social Democrats and such a deal would also raise questions about democratic accountability. Voters might see the Sweden Democrats as the country’s only opposition party.

The Moderates could form a one-party government but that would require support from the Sweden Democrats as well as the smaller centre-right parties.

Moderate leader Kristersson has ruled this out, and the Centre and Liberal parties would probably not go along with the idea if the Sweden Democrats were given any significant say over policy while remaining outside the government.

Parliament opens on Sept. 25. If Lofven is ousted, the speaker is allowed to give a maximum of four prime ministerial candidates the opportunity to form a government. If they all fail, fresh elections must be called. There is no formal time limit for negotiations, but the deadline for the budget is Nov. 15.

If no new government is in place by then, the current government, continuing as caretakers, would put forward a budget until a new cabinet can take office.</s>Voters handed Sweden’s ruling party its worst-ever election result and delivered a parallel lift to a far-right party with white supremacist roots, preliminary results showed.

After a campaign dominated by debates over immigration, the centre-left Social Democratic Party emerged with the greatest share of the vote — 28.4% as the count neared completion — yet looking at holding fewer parliament seats and having its mandate to govern questioned.

The potential for an immigration backlash to result in a big boost for the far-right Sweden Democrats inspired fear among many Swedes before the election.

It received a little more than one in six votes, or 17.6%. Its showing was not as strong as the one-in-five polls had predicted, but good for a third-place finish that had the party’s leader telling supporters, “We won.”

Prime Minister Stefan Lofven, who brought the Social Democrats to power in 2014, said he intended to remain in the job.

The leader of the Moderates party that came in second, Ulf Kristersson, already had called on Mr Lofven to resign and claimed the right to form Sweden’s next government.

Sounding sombre and firm, Mr Lofven told his supporters the election presented “a situation that all responsible parties must deal with,” adding that “a party with roots in Nazism” would “never ever offer anything responsible, but hatred.”

“We have a moral responsibility. We must gather all good forces. We won’t mourn, we will organise ourselves,” he said.

Final election returns were expected later in the week.

The preliminary results made it unlikely any party would secure a majority of 175 seats in the 349-seat Riksdag, Sweden’s parliament. It could take weeks or months of coalition talks before the next government is formed.

Both the left-leaning bloc led by the Social Democrats and the centre-right bloc in which the Moderates is largest of four parties have said they would refuse to consider the Sweden Democrats as a coalition partner.

Sweden — home to the Nobel prizes and militarily neutral for the better part of two centuries — has been known for its comparatively open doors to migrants and refugees.

Sunday’s general election was the first since the country of 10 million took in a record 163,000 refugees in 2015 as mass migration to Europe rose dramatically.

MR Lofven eventually said Sweden no longer could cope with the influx and immigration laws were tightened.

Like other far-right parties in Europe, the Sweden Democrats worked to soften its neo-Nazi image in the lead-up to the election.

The party symbol was switched from a flame thrower to a flower. Members known for making pro-Third Reich statements were pushed out.

It made its first mark in politics with municipal council seats in 2006, and since then slowly helped revise long-accepted social norms for what Swedes could say openly about foreigners and integration without being considered racist.

At the Swedish Democrat’s election eve rally on Saturday, party leader Jimmie Akesson criticised Mr Lofven’s government for “prioritising” the needs of new immigrants the ones of Swedish citizens.

Mr Akesson was jubilant as he addressed supporters a day later, declaring the estimated 14 parliament seats the Social Democrats picked up a victory other parties could not ignore in coalition negotiations.

“This party has increased and made the biggest gains. Everything is about us,” Mr Akesson said. “I am ready to talk with others.”

Turnout in the election was reported at 84.4%, up from 83% in 2014.</s>STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Sweden faces a political impasse after its mainstream centre-left and centre-right blocs virtually tied in an election on Sunday, while the far-right - which neither wants to deal with - made gains on a hardline anti-immigration platform.

With nearly all votes counted on Monday, the ruling centre-left Social Democrats and Greens and their Left Party parliamentary ally had 40.6 percent of the vote, while the opposition centre-right Alliance was on 40.3 percent.

That translates into a single-seat advantage in the 349-member Riksdag.

The Sweden Democrats, a party with white supremacist roots, won 17.6 percent, about 5 percentage points more than four years ago. It was the biggest gain of any party and in line with conventional opinion polls but fell short of the 20-30 percent their leader Jimmie Akesson had predicted.

“Most signs pointed towards the Sweden Democrats taking over the position as the second-biggest party in Sweden. But the expected ... bang did not happen,” the liberal Expressen daily said in an opinion piece. “Sweden is now on steadier grounds than what we could have feared before the election.”

Many online surveys, which in the last election had gauged the Sweden Democrats’ vote better than conventional polls, had signalled they could dethrone the Social Democrats as the nation’s biggest party - a position the centre-left has held for a century.

In the end, the Sweden Democrats were beaten by Prime Minister Stefan Lofven’s Social Democrats by a 10 percentage point margin and eclipsed also by Ulf Kristersson’s Moderates, the Alliance’s candidate for the premiership.

“In some sense we’re happy the Sweden Democrats didn’t grow more than they did,” Liberal Party lawmaker Allan Widman told Reuters. “The bigger they become, the more hard pressed all other parties become.”

The Sweden Democrats’ success follows a rise in popularity of other far-right parties in Europe amid growing anxiety over national identity, the effects of globalisation and fears over immigration boosted by conflicts in the Middle East and Africa.

Sweden saw itself as a “humanitarian superpower” for years, but a rise in gang violence in immigrant-dominated, socially deprived city suburbs has also won support for the Sweden Democrats.

After the arrival of 163,000 asylum seekers in 2015 - the most in Europe in relation to the country’s population of 10 million, the government suspended many of its liberal asylum policies.

There was a sense of relief among supporters of mainstream parties about the far-right’s less dramatic gains. That was shared in Brussels. “It is clear that the claim that the far-right is on an inexorable roll and will devour everything that stands in its way is false,” said one EU official, while acknowledging that there is fragmentation among parties.

Still, the Swedish election underscored a broader shift to the right in one of Europe’s most socially progressive nations.

Senior figures in the mainstream parties headed into meetings on Monday to produce a strategy for forming a government. But the process could take weeks and possibly fail, with the Sweden Democrats vowing to sink any cabinet that doesn’t give them a say in policy.

“We won’t participate in letting through a government which doesn’t give us influence,” Akesson said on local channel TV4. “On the contrary, we will do what we can to take down any such government.”

Akesson hopes his party, which wants Sweden to leave the European Union and freeze immigration, can play a decisive role in negotiations over forming a government, a prospect so far rejected by all other parties.

He challenged Kristersson to choose between seeking support from the Sweden Democrats for an Alliance government or accept four more years of Lofven as prime minister.

Kristersson called on Lofven to resign, but also rebuffed Akesson. “We have been completely clear during the whole election. The Alliance will not govern or discuss how to form a government with the Sweden Democrats,” he said.

Both sides laid claim to being best placed to form a government, although votes from Swedes living abroad are not due to be declared until Wednesday and these could still sway the final outcome slightly.

Yet in the same breath, leaders of both sides called for bipartisan accommodation to avoid gridlock in parliament.

Sweden’s centre-left and centre-right have ruled together only a handful of times since the mid-1930s. Also, a 2014 accord to neutralise the Sweden Democrats and let the biggest bloc rule proved deeply unpopular among centre-right grassroot members and rapidly unravelled.

“Something has got to give,” Umea University political scientist Magnus Blomgren said. “Whether that’s an agreement across the political divide in some way or not, something has to be done.”

A new election will be called if parliament doesn’t agree on a prime minister after four attempts.
The center-left parties that form the current government obtain 40.6% of the vote, the center-right alliance winning 40.3%. The far-right Sweden Democrats gain 17.6%. A long process to form a coalition government now seems likely.