Sweden’s ruling coalition trails in poll, but closes gap on centre-left opposition

COPENHAGEN, Aug 25 (Reuters) – The gap between Sweden’s ruling right-wing coalition government and the centre-left opposition parties has narrowed since June ahead of an election for parliament next month, a new opinion poll showed on Tuesday.

The August 11 to 23 survey, published by daily Dagens Nyheter, showed the right-wing coalition’s gap to the opposition deceased to 6.8 percentage points, compared with 9.5 percentage points in June.

Swedes go to the polls on September 13 and the election campaign focuses on cost of living, security, immigration, crime and energy supply.

Support for the four opposition parties, of which Andersson’s Social Democrats is the biggest by far, stood at 52.4%, down from 53.8% in June, but up from the 48.9% they won in the 2022 election, according to the survey of 1,661 voters by pollster Ipsos.

A Demoskop poll published by daily Svenska Dagbladet on August 13 showed support for the four opposition parties was at 50.6%.

Meanwhile, the backing for Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson’s governing bloc, including the closely aligned far-right Sweden Democrats, stood at 45.6%, up from 44.2% in June, but down from the 49.6% they won in the last election four years ago.

(Reporting by Louise Rasmussen, editing by Johan Ahlander)