Sweden holds election amid concerns over energy bills, crime
Sweden is holding a national election on Sunday that comes as voters are growing increasingly concerned over rising energy bills and gang violence
MALMO, Sweden (AP) — With election day in Sweden approaching, Joakim Sandell, the leader of the Social Democratic Party in the city of Malmo, pulled on a jacket with his party’s rose emblem and headed out to ring doorbells and urge people to vote.
Many people in the Mollevangen district, an ethnically diverse neighborhood with roots in the labor movement, support Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson's Social Democrats. But Sunday's election is expected to be very close and the center-left party is fighting for every last vote as it faces a strong challenge from the right.
Sandell, who is running for reelection to the national parliament, the 349-seat Riksdag, began his campaign thinking voters would want to discuss health care after the COVID-19 pandemic, which took a heavy toll among the elderly. He also expected them to bring up NATO, after the historically non-aligned Scandinavian nation -- which hasn’t fought a war since the Napoleonic era -- decided to join the alliance after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February.
But Swedish voters are mostly focused on rising energy costs in the wake of the war in Ukraine and violent crime at home.
