In a post on X made after 1am, Tobias Andersson, one of the party's top up-and-coming politicians, laid the blame for the left-wing opposition slender lead on the votes of foreigners who have become citizens over the past four years.
"The Moderates, the Christian Democrats, and the Liberals refused to halt the rollout of citizenships when we won the election," he wrote. "If we lose, it will be because we granted 200,000+ citizenships and they, in turn, voted left. Lose-lose, as they say."
Moderaterna, Kristdemokraterna och Liberalerna vägrade stoppa utrullningen av medborgarskap när vi vann valet.
— Tobias Andersson (@SDTobbe) September 13, 2026
Om vi förlorar så är det på grund av att vi beviljat 200 000+ medborgarskap och de i sin turnröstat vänster.
Lose-lose som man säger.
The Sweden Democrats' were far and away the election's biggest loser in terms of raw votes, with their share falling 3 percentage on the 2022 result to 17.5 percent.
The party's leader Jimmie Åkesson in November 2024 called for a freeze on new citizenship awards until the stricter citizenship requirements then being developed by a government inquiry were put into place.
The government then ordered the Migration Agency to bring in new security requirements that led to the number of citizenships awarded to fall by more than half, leading to a sharp fall in new citizens in 2025 and the first six months of 2026.
Andersson, a former leader of the Sweden Democrats' youth wing, chaired the industry and trade committee during the last parliament.