Ms Anderson, who was the Nordic country’s first female prime minister and led the nation’s historic push for NATO membership, announced she would step down with less than 0.1 per cent of the vote remaining to be counted. “Tomorrow [Thursday] Therefore, I will request my dismissal from the prime ministership and responsibility for the continuation of the process will now pass to the speaker of the parliament and the Riksdag,” said Ms Andersson. He added that “the preliminary result is clear enough to draw a conclusion” that her centre-left forces had lost power. “In parliament, they have a one or two seat advantage,” Ms Anderson said. “It’s a slim majority, but it’s a majority.” The outgoing prime minister pointed out that despite losing the majority, the Social Democrats retained more than 30 percent of the vote. Ms Anderson has been a popular leader, but citizens are reportedly concerned about rising crime rates in segregated areas that are home to large numbers of immigrants. The leader of the populist Sweden Democrats, Jimmy Akesson, declared victory for the bloc, adding that his party would be “a constructive and driving force” in the task of rebuilding security in Sweden. It was “time to put Sweden first”, he said. “Now enough will be enough with the failed social democratic policy which for eight years has continued to lead the country in the wrong direction,” Mr Akesson said. The right-wing bloc of four parties – Moderates, Sweden Democrats, Christian Democrats and Liberals – had a one-seat lead after Sunday’s election, but looked set to take 176 seats in the 349-seat parliament to the centre-left’s 173 seats. Ulf Christerson, the leader of the moderates, is expected to lead the bloc and form a government. “Now we will put Sweden in order,” he wrote on Facebook. Ulf Kristersson (L), leader of the Moderate Party in Sweden and Jimmie Akesson, leader of the Sweden Democrats (AFP via Getty Images) “The Moderates and the other parties on my side have been given the mandate for the change we asked for. I now begin the work of forming a new, effective government,” Mr Kristersson said. While there has been no formal agreement between the parties on how they would govern the nation, centre-right parties have said they will not approve cabinet posts for the far-right Sweden Democrats. In a major shift in Swedish politics, the Sweden Democrats, once shunned by citizens because they were founded in the 1980s by neo-Nazis, won nearly 20 percent of the vote.
