Prime Minister Goeran Persson's Social Democrats won a fresh mandate in Sweden's general election last night.
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Prime Minister Goeran Persson (L) gives Left Party chairman Gudrun Schyman a hug after the final results in the Swedish general elections.
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In doing so, they countered the trend of right-wing election successes across Europe in the past year and putting the country on course for a referendum on adopting the euro.
His Social Democratic Party and its left-wing allies, the Left Party and the Greens, together won a comfortable 53 per cent of votes, representing 191 mandates in the 349-seat parliament.
The four-party centre-right opposition was clearly beaten with 43.8 per cent of votes and 158 seats, according to the official count which does not yet include some 50,000 postal votes.
Mr Persson claimed the results a "fantastic success", and Mr Bo Lundgren, leader of the main conservative opposition Moderate Party, conceded defeat.
Mr Persson fought the election highlighting the need to reform while keeping Sweden's welfare system intact and rejecting the opposition's tax cut agenda.
The Social Democrats came within a whisker of winning enough votes to govern with the Left Party alone, but failed by just one seat and will now still require the tacit support of the Greens, their other informal partner since 1998.
The Social Democrats obtained 40 per cent of votes and remained the largest party in the country; the Left party won 8.4 per cent.
AFP