Sweden’s Prime Minister says he will hand in his and his government’s resignations, after Fredrik Reinfeldt’s center-right coalition came in second behind the center-Left bloc in the weekend elections.  But the bloc led by Social Democrat Stefan Lofven failed to win a parliamentary majority.

“The Swedish people have turned their backs on tax cuts and privatizations as the solutions to all social problems,” Loefven told his supporters on Sunday after the Social Democratic victory was confirmed.

Lofven’s bloc garnered 43.7 percent of the vote, followed by 39.1 percent for the center right.  On the surface, that means a government with limited clout to pass bills.  Lofven said the Social Democrats will team with the Greens and extend a hand to “democratic parties” to form the new government.

“It’s time to put party interests aside,” Lofven said.  “Our country is too small for conflicts.”

But one group neither Lofven nor the center right bloc will touch is the Sweden Democrats.  The far right, anti-immigration party came in third with 12.9 percent of the vote, more than doubling its total from four years ago.  Growing out of the white supremacy racist underground of the 1980s, the Sweden Democrats preached against the country’s generous asylum policies.

The biggest disappointed was felt by the new Feminist Initiative party, which exit polls had suggested would clear the four percent threshold for entering parliament.  Partial results gave the party only 3.1 percent of the vote.