The Centre Party (Centerpartiet) could become one of the decisive parties in Sweden’s government negotiations after an election in which the opposition bloc appears to have secured a narrow lead. The party wants Magdalena Andersson as prime minister and says its focus will be on negotiations with the Social Democratic Party, but it still refuses to support a government that includes the Left Party.
That leaves the Centre Party in an unusual position. It rejects a government dependent on the Sweden Democrats, but also rejects a cabinet containing the Left Party. Party secretary Hannes Hervieu told SVT that he does not see Swedish politics as divided into only two sides.
The Centre Party wants to negotiate with the Social Democrats
With most votes counted, the parties that backed Andersson for prime minister appeared to have a narrow parliamentary advantage.
Hervieu said the Centre Party’s priority would therefore be negotiations with the Social Democratic Party (Socialdemokraterna). He also said he had good contacts with representatives of all the red-green parties, while declining to discuss when or how talks were taking place.
The party entered the election arguing for a centrist government led by Andersson. Before election day, Centre Party leader Elisabeth Thand Ringqvist proposed a coalition involving the Social Democrats, Centre Party, Christian Democrats (Kristdemokraterna) and Green Party (Miljöpartiet), while excluding both the Left Party and the Sweden Democrats. She told SVT that such a configuration could offer an alternative to governments dependent on either political extreme.
That option remains difficult because the Christian Democrats campaigned as part of the outgoing Tidö cooperation and have so far shown little interest in joining an Andersson-led government.
The Left Party remains the main obstacle
The biggest immediate problem for the Centre Party is the Left Party (Vänsterpartiet).
The Left Party has demanded cabinet posts in exchange for supporting a Social Democratic-led government. The Centre Party has drawn the opposite red line, saying that it will not support a government in which the Left Party holds ministerial positions.
The disagreement became particularly clear when Hervieu and Left Party deputy leader Ida Gabrielsson met in SVT’s election studio.
Hervieu repeated that the Centre Party did not believe the next government should include the Left Party. Gabrielsson responded that the parties needed to stop discussing the issue only in television studios and begin negotiating directly.
She argued that both parties’ preferred outcomes had failed to materialise: the Left Party had wanted a government composed of the Social Democrats, Left Party and Green Party, while the Centre Party had campaigned for a broader centrist arrangement.
For Gabrielsson, that means both sides will now have to compromise if Andersson is to form a government.
The Centre Party also rejects any government dependent on the Sweden Democrats
The Centre Party’s position is not simply an attempt to keep the Left Party out of government.
It has also ruled out supporting a government dependent on the Sweden Democrats (Sverigedemokraterna), even if SD remained outside the cabinet and supported it only in parliament.
Hervieu told SVT that the “Tidö project” had lost the election and said the Sweden Democrats should not enter government.
That position complicates attempts by Moderate Party (Moderaterna) leader Ulf Kristersson to remain prime minister. Kristersson and senior figures in the Christian Democrats have both indicated that they are open to new forms of cooperation that could involve the Centre Party.
But Hervieu rejected that possibility as long as the Sweden Democrats remain part of the parliamentary basis for such a government.
He argued that the Centre Party’s objection is not only institutional, but also political: it does not want to support policies shaped by dependence on SD.
The Centre Party has gradually moved towards Andersson
The Centre Party’s current preference for Andersson is the result of a shift that took place during 2026.
Earlier in the year, the party still presented both Kristersson and Andersson as possible prime ministers. By June, however, Thand Ringqvist said that Andersson had become the party’s most likely partner after the election.
She argued that Kristersson had disqualified himself in the Centre Party’s eyes by becoming increasingly dependent on the Sweden Democrats and by opening the possibility of SD ministers.
The Centre Party therefore went into the final phase of the campaign advocating a government built around the political centre rather than around Sweden’s two established blocs.
The party’s position could determine whether Andersson can govern
The election result has made that strategy more important.
If the preliminary majority for the opposition holds, Andersson will need to find a way of securing enough parliamentary support without losing either the Centre Party or the Left Party.
Sweden’s system of negative parliamentarism gives her some flexibility. A prime minister does not need a majority voting in favour, but must avoid having 175 MPs vote against.
That means the Centre Party and Left Party do not necessarily have to sit in the same government or even support the same political programme. One or both could instead tolerate an Andersson government from outside.
For now, however, their public positions remain difficult to reconcile.
The Centre Party says it wants Andersson as prime minister but no Left Party ministers. The Left Party says it should no longer support Social Democratic governments without receiving cabinet representation.
Hervieu’s argument that Swedish politics cannot simply be divided into two sides is therefore more than a description of the Centre Party’s ideology. After this election, it may also become the principle on which Sweden’s next government has to be constructed.
