The campaign period was met with issues regarding the accession of Sweden to NATO due to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, as well as crime, energy, the economy, and immigration.

The left-leaning bloc won the most votes in large cities and several university towns with unprecedented massive margins.

In this historically industrial area, the county of Dalarna was won by the right-leaning coalition for the first time in history, while the left held on by just 373 votes in Värmland.

Likewise, some municipalities that the outright leftist parties (S, V, MP) had won with an overall majority of 50 points in the 1994 Swedish general election, flipped to the right.

Major gains in minority were also made by the right-leaning bloc in Northern Sweden, leading the vote in eight municipalities compared to none four years prior.

In the lower east, the historically leftist swing counties Kalmar, Södermanland, Västmanland and Östergötland all went to the right to seal the parliamentary majority.

In turn, the Centre Party (C) and Liberals (L) declined to back his candidacy, as Kristersson wanted SD to take part in the government.

[8] Speaker of the Riksdag, Andreas Norlén, set another vote to be held in January, and Löfven formed a deal between S, MP, C, L, and the Left Party (V).

The government later ordered 100,000 people a week to be tested to curb the spread of the disease; with insufficient healthcare resources and unclear responsibilities, the goal was not met.

[10] During the COVID-19 pandemic, the government did not impose national lockdowns but rather limits on the number of people that were allowed to meet at public places.

According to Ann-Cathrine Jungar of Södertörn University, this put Sweden in line with several other European countries in which centre-right and radical-right parties cooperate.

[12] In August 2020, the right-wing opposition criticised the Löfven government for a perceived failure to deal with rising crime including gun violence, which Kristersson called a "second pandemic".

[23] Following the disappointing results in the 2018 general election that once again relegated the party to the opposition and saw the dismissal of the centre-right Alliance, M broke the cordon sanitaire in Swedish politics and opened up to SD.

[27][28] MP pulled out of confidence and supply for her government, which led to Andersson's resignation seven hours after her election as prime minister.

[33][34][35] Considering that MP did not vote in favour of the government, the Andersson Cabinet would be only composed of members of S.[36] Heading into the 2022 general election, Andersson's leadership moved the Social Democrats to the left after the publication of a May 2021 party report, "Distributional Policies for Equality and Fairness", which criticised the rising inequalities that emerged from political decisions by previous left and right governments.

After the beginning of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, campaign issues shifted towards the NATO accession of Sweden, as well as of neighbouring Finland.

Opinion polls after the invasion had showed that a majority of respondents supported the accession of Sweden, a militarily non-aligned country,[52] to NATO for the first time.

[61] Additionally, issues regarding energy, healthcare, law and order, education, economy, and environment were also talked about during the campaign period.

[62][63][64] The Social Democrats published their election manifesto, in which the party had promised to tackle issues regarding crime, welfare, climate, green industry, and rising prices.

[70] The Sweden Democrats campaigned on lowering asylum migration to "close to zero", as well as introducing longer prison sentences.

[73] In August the Sweden Democrats surged in opinion polls due to their tough stance on crime and immigration, surpassing the Moderate Party.

[78] The Christian Democrats (KD) campaigned on installing more security cameras and increasing funding in resources for the police to fight gang crime.

[79] Pehrson responded by stating that the four parties (M, SD, KD, L) would visit a nuclear power plant together, and described it as "hardly a big ideological question".

[80] The Green Party campaigned on climate and social issues, including investment and expansion of rail/train transport in Sweden, and replacing fossil fuels and diesel with renewable fuels, as well as protecting free media and initiating a citizenship initiative system to allow in part for legislation proposed by citizens.

[94][95] Sveriges Television exit polling (VALU) suggested the following demographic breakdown based on preliminary results to the nearest integer.

[108] As overseas and some postal votes were to be counted, the incumbent prime minister Magdalena Andersson stated that "it is too close to call the election".

Fallenkvist subsequently told Expressen that she had aimed to provoke the media into overinterpretations before later telling Dagens Nyheter that she had misspoke and meant to say "segerhelg", which would translate to "victory weekend".

[112] In late October, an SD candidate who had been elected to the Nynäshamn City Council resigned as a councillor after a media investigation found that she had been an active member of the neo-Nazi Nordic Resistance Movement for two decades.

[115][116] Andersson conceded on 14 September,[117] and announced her resignation as prime minister,[118][119] paving the way for Kristersson to attempt to form a new government.