Centre Left coalition in Sweden on course for victory

Alex Ritzen (0:00)

This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Alex Ritzen, and in the early hours of Monday, the 14th of September, these are our main stories. Sweden's election authorities predict a slim majority for the left-wing opposition in a close parliamentary race. Ukrainian Railways says Russia could have been targeting a train carrying senior European diplomats in a drone attack. And Turkish police detain dozens of people after sweeping raids at LGBT venues.

Also in this podcast, a tragic story as a result of the Mafia's grip on a family.

Anna Sergi (0:41)

The death of Denise Kosko is the last episode, let's say, of a family saga.

Alex Ritzen (0:48)

And in tennis.

Russell Fuller (0:49)

None of us have ever seen anything quite like that at the end of a Grand Slam final.

Alex Ritzen (0:53)

We're at Flushing Meadows for the US Open Men's Final. We begin in Sweden, where the country's general election on Sunday remains too close to call as the vote count continues. Initial exit polls suggested a victory for the left-wing opposition, with results for the largest party in that coalition, the Social Democrats, being met with jubilant celebrations.

SPEAKER_4 (1:25)

This will be a great change for Sweden for some democracy, a better future.

SPEAKER_5 (1:31)

It's briefly hopeful, I would say. It shows that, with some luck, we will still see that the polls that they actually pull through in the actual elections.

SPEAKER_6 (1:41)

I hope this is the start for the right-wing movement to finish off.

Alex Ritzen (1:47)

In their latest update, the election authorities are projecting that the left-wing bloc will win a three-seat majority in parliament. The far-right Sweden Democrats saw their support fall. But some results have yet to be declared. BBC Monitoring's Matilda Vellin has been following developments. She says it may take a while before we get a definitive result.

Matilda Vellin (2:08)

A government might take longer than an initial election result because there's eight parliamentary parties in Sweden. And the way that they collaborate with each other makes ground for who they approve as a prime minister.

So when we last had an election in Sweden four years ago, it took around a month for them to agree on a prime minister. And four years before that, it took so long that it was after Christmas before the prime minister was approved by parliament. It's likely that the last votes will be counted this coming Wednesday. So most likely we will know which of the two main blocks in the right-wing block and the centre-left block will have the most mandates. And then it will be likely to guess who will become the prime minister soon after that.

Alex Ritzen (2:52)

Opinion polls had predicted a victory for the far right, but the election authorities are suggesting that they were wrong and that the left-wing coalition is likely to be ahead.

Matilda Vellin (3:06)

I wouldn't say that there would ever be a victory for the far right in so far that in Sweden, for most of the last hundred years, the social democrats have been the biggest party, and that was always expected in this election too. And even though the social democrats have done, most likely have done one of the worst elections in the last hundred years, they are still the biggest party in Sweden. Such is their dominance. What people mean when they talk about the Sweden democrats being victors in the election is that they have really rocketed in their support. They only entered parliament 16 years ago in 2010, and since then, they have, every election, they have increased their support. So much so that four years ago they were the second biggest political party behind the social democrats.

Alex Ritzen (3:53)

So does that mean that migration is no longer perhaps quite the issue that it has been for recent years?

Matilda Vellin (4:01)

You ask about migration as a topic in Sweden, that's very much still a topic that has been discussed during the election, the campaigning.

Alex Ritzen (4:09)

How will Sweden change as a result of this election?

Matilda Vellin (4:12)

Well, it seems likely right now is that we will have a shift of prime minister. We will go from a conservative prime minister, Ulf Kristiansson, to a labour or social democrat prime minister, Magdalena Andersson. But again, we will see how these parties negotiate between themselves.

Alex Ritzen (4:27)

Matilda Vellin.

The state's railway company in Ukraine has said it's quite likely that Russia was seeking to attack a diplomatic train which had some of Europe's most senior security officials on board. On Sunday morning, the train was passing through a station in Ukraine which is near the Polish border and had left earlier than planned. Soon after leaving Warsaw, a Russian drone hit another train at the same station. The train had been evacuated and no one was injured, but this passenger said that she was terrified.