STOCKHOLM: Sweden’s parliamentary election opened on Sunday with polls showing the left-leaning Social Democrats poised to return to power after eight years of centre-right rule.

That would be a return to normalcy in Swedish politics because the Social Democrats — who built the country’s famed welfare state — haven’t been in opposition for this long since they first took power in 1920. Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, who took office in 2006, is the longest-serving conservative leader in Swedish history.

Though he’s won praise internationally for steering Sweden’s economy through Europe’s debt crisis in relatively good shape, many Swedes worry his pro-market policies have undermined the welfare system.

Reinfeldt’s centre-right coalition government has cut income and corporate taxes, abolished a tax on wealth and trimmed welfare benefits. It has also eased labour laws and privatised state-owned companies, including the maker of Absolut vodka.

Meanwhile, the gap between rich and poor has grown faster in Sweden than in most developed countries, though it remains among the world’s most egalitarian, according to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.

Published in Dawn, September 15th, 2014