Four weeks before Sweden’s general election, the Social Democrats have launched a coordinated push asking which ministries the Sweden Democrats would take over if the center-right bloc wins on September 13.
Several prominent Social Democrats used their social media accounts this week to ask the same question in almost identical wording, DR reports. Party secretary Tobias Baudin asked whether Richard Jomshof could become Sweden’s next justice minister. Jomshof last week accused opposition leader Magdalena Andersson and a newspaper editor of being traitors.
Member of parliament Ardalan Shekarabi asked on Instagram why Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, leader of the Moderates, had promised ministerial posts to a party he described as ethnonationalist and right-wing extremist. According to DR, Shekarabi said many Moderate voters dislike the arrangement.
The four center-right parties, the governing Moderates, Christian Democrats and Liberals plus the Sweden Democrats, are campaigning on forming a joint government. In a spring interview with Sveriges Radio, Sweden Democrats leader Jimmie Åkesson said the number of posts should be proportional to his party’s size. That calculation produced a figure of nearly half the posts, or 11 to 12 ministries.
Åkesson also said his party should hold three of the four most important portfolios, including responsibility for migration and integration. SVT Nyheter reported in May 2026 that he named finance, foreign affairs, justice, defense and migration as the portfolios his party is seeking. The Sweden Democrats have never sat in government before.
Kristersson rejects the numbers
Omni reported on August 9 that Kristersson dismissed the Social Democrats’ campaign as ridiculous. He said it is not certain that ministerial posts will be handed out according to party size, and that the composition of a government would be negotiated after the election. He also argued that the Social Democrats are avoiding questions about their own governing alternative, since they have not said who they would govern with.
A leader column in Göteborgs-Posten described the message about twelve Sweden Democrat ministers as being pumped out on social media throughout August. The column characterized it as scare tactics intended to draw attention away from the Social Democrats’ own policy compromises.
The Social Democrats and the rest of the red-green opposition still refuse to cooperate with the Sweden Democrats. Andersson has made fighting right-wing populism and hate rhetoric a campaign pledge, according to DR.
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The center-right bloc gained some ground this week. A poll published by the newspaper Svenska Dagbladet showed the gap between the blocs at 3.7 percentage points, down from 7.6 points in June. The Liberals remain below the parliamentary threshold, which could shift the balance if they lose their seats.
The government also passed several measures earlier in the week, including a lower age of criminal responsibility and changes to sentence reductions for multiple crimes. Speaking to Aftonbladet at the start of August, Åkesson said many voters make up their minds only in the final week.
