The Party of European Socialists welcomes the victory of the Swedish Social Democrats in the general election and calls for Swedish parties to fence off the far-right Sweden Democrats from government.
 
PES president Sergei Stanishev said:

“We are glad that our Swedish party Socialdemokraterna won the election by a good margin, against very difficult odds. This victory is an energizing one for all European Social Democrats in a context of strong polarization and raise of the far-right everywhere in Europe. I hope that a new social-democratic-led government will be formed and I am looking forward to continuing our work with Stefan Löfven as a pro-European prime minister of Sweden.“
 
PES Secretary General, Achim Post said:

“The Swedish social democrats, led by Prime Minister Stefan Löfven, have won the Swedish election. They faced very difficult conditions during the campaign, but they were able to make their case and stand against the far-right Sweden Democrats. The growth in votes of the Sweden Democrats has been lower than feared.
This result shows that a courageous and determined social democracy can hold against the spread of the far-right and of nationalists.
Now it’s time for dialogue and cooperation between all democratic forces in Sweden, in order to prevent the far-right from entering the government. In these challenging times, Europe needs to continue to have a constructive, progressive government in Sweden, led by Stefan Löfven and the Swedish Social Democrats.”   

Notes for editors

• All 28 EU member states are represented by their progressive parties at the PES, which brings together 34 socialist, social democratic, labour and democratic parties as full members. Together with 12 associate parties and 12 observer parties from outside the EU, we fight for a better and more progressive Europe.
• The current president of the PES is Sergei Stanishev.

The Socialists & Democrats Group is the parliamentary group of the PES.