The Social Democrats are preparing for difficult government negotiations after the election

The gap between the blocs looked reassuring for the Social Democrats for a long time. In the end, however, the 175th mandate jumped back and forth between the blocks in the TV broadcasts' forecasts during the election night. A final election result is expected on Thursday. Most things point towards the four opposition parties S, MP, C and V together gaining a majority.

That's where the problems for the S management begin.

V leader Nooshi Dadgostar's ultimate demands do not match C leader Elisabeth Thand Ringqvist's.

- We have prepared for many different scenarios, says an S source with insight into the planning.

Before the election, S had plans to first contact Ebba Busch, to see if KD could support a central government consisting of S, MP and C, according to DN's sources. During the election night, that sketch was scrapped, because the mandates are not enough.

Now Magdalena Andersson is instead forced to negotiate with both the Center Party and the Left Party. Contacts at different levels – between opposition party leaders, party secretaries, budget managers – are kept warm while waiting for a final election result.

Information about various substantive political issues has abounded in the media, but according to DN's information, the talks are not even close to that yet.

Only when an election winner has been appointed can government negotiations begin. This is how one reasons in S.

According to information, it is highly likely that issues relating to the Riksdag, who will become speaker and which parties will receive committee chairmanships are what will be discussed in the first stage.

In connection with a walk in Gothenburg during the last weeks of the election campaign, the S leader answered how she is in a negotiation room:

- Rock hard. Ask anyone, Magdalena Andersson told DN.

The Social Democrats have several excel sheets with the policies of the other parties collected. According to the S leader, you have a good grasp of proposals you like and "of those we think are less good".

- You have a negotiating group. But it is incredibly important to have another group where you adjust your negotiating mandate all the time, so as not to land crooked. I think that is a very good way to work, said Magdalena Andersson in August.

Once the government talks get going, the information is kept in a tight circle at first. It involves three to four people with full visibility into all parties involved. At the Social Democrats, the top political officials Nils Vikmång, Axel Björneke and David Hakula sit at the negotiating table around the S leader. As the negotiations widen, the respective parties' economic policy spokespersons and the staffs around them join.

The Social Democrats estimate that it will be a long and winding road to an opening. A proposal that is now being discussed in the party is to let the Left Party have civil servants in the Government Office, in the same way that SD has had with the Tidö government. Another idea is to go forward with an S-MP government and bind both C and V through an agreement, something that currently goes against the demands of the Left Party.

DN was able to tell before the election that the Social Democrats plan to put hard pressure on V to get them to give up their demands for ministerial posts - even if it will require several prime ministerial votes.

Even in the innermost circles of the Left Party and the Center Party, a protracted process is expected.

No matter what, Magdalena Andersson, according to DN, refuses to compromise on what is fundamental to her: a stable government basis, which gets its budget through the Riksdag.

The S leader does not want to end up in the same position as Stefan Löfven in 2021, when the Left Party brought down the government together with M, KD and SD over the issue of market rents.

Or having to dissolve their government because a cooperation party gets cold feet. Andersson's first stay as prime minister lasted seven hours, and ended when the Green Party left the government rather than continue to govern on the right-wing parties' budget in 2022.