Sep. 15, 2002
  Sweden's ruling socialists poised to win election

Preliminary results point to socialist victory

STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) Sweden's ruling socialists
appeared set to maintain power after a tight race against a
center-right opposition, preliminary results showed. Prime
Minister Goeran Persson declared today's election a
"fantastic  success" for his party.

Persson pledged continued commitment to Sweden's
cradle-to-grave welfare society. The opposition had
campaigned  on tax cuts and immigration issues.

The long-governing Social Democratic Party had
a surprisingly strong lead in preliminary results
Sunday. With some 90  percent of the vote counted,
the Social Democrats looked set to stay in power
ith a minority government if they gain   the support of
the Left and Green parties in the 349-seat Riksdag, or
parliament.

The three parties together had 53.2 percent, compared
with 43.2 percent for the four non-socialist parties, led by the
conservative Moderate Party, according to official
preliminary results.

Persson said the results showed his Social Democratic
Party had stopped a conservative trend in Europe and he
expressed hope that Germany would follow in its elections
next week.

"This is a fantastic success," Persson said, waving bouquets
of red roses. "We broke the trend. Next week our German
comrades can follow us.''

Going into balloting, the center-left Social Democrats combined
with the former communist Left and the Green parties
were in a statistical tie with the group of four non-socialist parties,
polls showed.

The picture was sharply different a few months ago, when
surveys showed the Social Democrats, who have ruled for all
but nine of the last 70 years, surging to record-high support
levels of 40-plus percent.

The Left and the Green parties, which have supported the
minority government in the 349-seat parliament, also had
threatened to withdraw their support if they did not get stronger
roles in the next administration. But both signaled in the
final days that they would cooperate with the Social Democrats
to prevent a center-right government from taking power.

Official preliminary results were expected before midnight, but
newspaper Svenska Dagbladet predicted such a tight race
that 50,000 postal ballots, which can be mailed in advance
and tallied by Wednesday, could make a difference.

"We feel cautiously optimistic," Social Democratic party
secretary Lars Stjernqvist said.

Many credited the recent opposition surge to Lars Leijonborg,
leader of the Liberal Party. Until recently the 52-year-old
was struggling for control of his own party, but came out strong
with a proposal early last month to make immigrants
pass a Swedish language test before gaining citizenship.

The Liberals, which are one of parliament's smallest parties
with 16 seats, saw their support triple to about 13 percent in
surveys.

Matthias Lenje, a 30-year-old teacher, said the Liberals' strong
stance was a "refreshing exception" from the usual
discussion about tax cuts and welfare reforms in the prosperous
nation of 8.9 million people, of whom nearly one in five
is an immigrant or has at least one immigrant parent.

Persson was hopeful that voters would recognize his minority
government was the best choice to defend extensive social
welfare benefits, which are funded by some of the world's highest taxes.

"We have been able to say what we wanted," he said in a
television interview before the election. "If that's enough
remains to be seen, but I don't think we'll accuse ourselves
of having had a bad campaign.''

Persson, a 53-year-old career politician, gained popularity
last year with a successful turn at the rotating chairmanship
of  the European Union and a forceful denunciation of the Sept. 11 attacks.

But analysts said the non-socialist parties, which are divided
on many issues and have not yet named a candidate for
prime minister, benefited from increased election coverage in
the media and a switch in focus from foreign policy to
domestic matters.

Sweden lacks a strong anti-immigration party of the kind that
has caused a tilt to the right in several other EU nations,
and the debate has not been clear-cut.

The opposition, which includes the Moderates, the Liberals,
the Christian Democrats and the Center Party, actually
favors relaxing labor immigration rules. The Social Democrats
fear unions will object.

"The most important question is that Sweden keeps its model,
economically and socially and doesn't follow America,"
said 61-year-old Fattouh Kassar, a Syrian-born warehouse
worker who voted for the Left Party.

Persson's party had a record low of 36.4 percent in the 1998
elections but stayed in power with the help of the Left and
the Greens.

Sweden, a constitutional monarchy that has 6.7 million eligible
voters, holds parliamentary elections every four years.
Municipal and county elections also were being held today.

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