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Where do Swedish politicians stand on Joe Biden and Donald Trump?

The Local Sweden
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Where do Swedish politicians stand on Joe Biden and Donald Trump?
File photo of Sweden's party leaders. Photo: Jessica Gow/TT

As the race between Democrat Joe Biden and Republican Donald Trump remains too close to call, we look at what Swedish party leaders had to say on the day of the US election.

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At the time of writing, the outcome of the US election is unclear as candidates Joe Biden, who is leading the popular vote, and Donald Trump remain neck-to-neck in the polls with only a few states left to declare their electoral votes.

But yesterday Swedish politicians expressed their hopes for the election, with Centre Party leader Annie Lööf writing on Instagram that she was rooting for former Vice President Biden.

"The US has taken great strides in the wrong direction with Donald Trump. I'm therefore keeping my fingers crossed that Joe Biden wins the election. The world needs a statesman in the White House again," she wrote.

Liberal leader Nyamko Sabuni told the Expressen tabloid that she, too, preferred a Democrat in the White House, and Left leader Nooshi Dadgostar said Biden was the better of the two candidates although not left-wing enough.

"The hope in the US lies with the growing left movement around Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez," said Dadgostar.

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Prime Minister Stefan Löfven wrote on Facebook that his centre-left Social Democrats had more in common with the Democrats than the Republicans, especially on workers' rights, climate and international cooperation, but that it was "up to the American people to decide the election, without outside interference".

"As Prime Minister I'm leading a government that will continue to uphold the constructive collaboration between Sweden and the US no matter what administration we get. I have met both presidential candidates and have had good conversations with both of them," he wrote.

Ulf Kristersson of the conservative Moderates wrote on Instagram that he would have preferred late Republican President Ronald Reagan, but picked Biden over Trump. Neither Christian Democrat leader Ebba Busch nor Isabella Lövin of the Green Party named a specific candidate, and Jimmie Åkesson of the anti-immigration Sweden Democrats has previously said he prefers the Republicans to the Democrats.

Swedish politics are generally to the left of US politics, and it is likely that the majority of politicians believe that the country will find it easier to get along with a Democrat in the White House. However, although some expressed clear criticism of Trump, they generally stopped short on Tuesday of explicitly addressing concerns about the incumbent's support for nationalist movements and threats not to acknowledge the election results.

If it were up to voters in Sweden, Biden would win in a landslide.

A survey by pollsters Novus in September found that 79 percent of people in Sweden would have cast their vote for Biden, compared to only nine percent who said they would have voted for Trump.

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