Sweden votes out conservative government
On Sunday, after eight years of tax cuts and chipping away at the welfare system, Sweden voted out the center-right Alliance coalition, giving a plurality of the vote to the center-left Social Democrats. Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt said he will tender his and his government's resignations on Monday.
It wasn't an overwhelming victory for the center-left: The Social Democrats got 31.1 percent of the vote, while Reinfeldt's Moderate Party got only 23.2. With the Green Party and Left Party, the Social Democrats have 43.6 percent of the vote, versus 39.4 percent for conservative Alliance bloc. The big surprise of the election, unnerving for many Swedes, is the 13 percent garnered by the far-right anti-immigration Sweden Democrats party, which doubled its vote from four years ago.
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