The Social Democrats’ party leader Magdalena Andersson has suffered a dramatic drop in trust after the election. In a new survey from Novus, she loses a full eleven percentage points and loses her top position for the first time since becoming party leader. At the same time, Ulf Kristersson (Moderate Party) climbs to the top, while the Left Party’s Nooshi Dadgostar ends up last.

Magdalena Andersson has long been the party leader with the highest trust among Swedish voters. But according to a new Novus survey, presented by TV4 on Friday, that position is now lost.

Only 35 percent of those surveyed state they have a great deal or fairly high amount of trust in the Social Democrat leader. That represents a drop of eleven percentage points compared to the previous measurement, where the corresponding figure was 46 percent.

Andersson thus falls from first to third place in the trust ranking. She is surpassed by both the Moderate Party’s Ulf Kristersson, who increases from 35 to 42 percent, and the Christian Democrats’ Ebba Busch, who reaches 39 percent.

“A radical change”

According to Novus CEO Torbjörn Sjöström, the result is remarkable. Since Magdalena Andersson took over the Social Democrats in 2021, she has consistently topped the institute’s trust polls.

– Magdalena Andersson has lost her top position. This is the first time ever she does not have the highest level of trust and that she is below 40 percent. That Kristersson simultaneously moves up and exceeds 40 percent, that is a radical change, he tells TV4.

The drop in trust comes as Andersson is trying to form a new government after the parliamentary election. Despite the red-green bloc gaining a slim majority of seats, the government formation has been characterized by disagreements among the intended coalition partners.

Andersson has received a new exploratory mandate from the Speaker after her first attempt failed. On Friday, the red-green parties gather at Lidingö for continued talks about the government issue.

Left leader at the bottom – Liberals the winners

The situation looks even worse for the Left Party’s Nooshi Dadgostar, whose trust rating drops from 14 to just nine percent. She lands last among the nine party leaders and spokespersons included in the summary.

The decline comes despite the Left Party being the party that gained the most in the parliamentary election. According to Novus, Dadgostar’s tough demands for government participation may have strengthened her among core voters, while she lost the trust of other groups.

– This intransigence in others’ eyes, that one must be in government, strengthens her core base. But other potential voters whom she may have attracted with a somewhat softer tone are instead losing trust, says Sjöström.

The largest increase is simultaneously noted for the Liberals’ Simona Mohamsson. Her trust rating doubles from eleven to 22 percent, an increase of eleven percentage points.

The Green Party’s Amanda Lind also gains, rising from 20 to 25 percent, while the Centre Party’s Elisabeth Thand Ringqvist climbs from 15 to 18 percent.

The survey was conducted between September 30 and October 4, 2026. A total of 1,358 people between the ages of 18 and 84 participated in Novus’s Sweden panel.

The changes for, among others, Magdalena Andersson, Ulf Kristersson and Nooshi Dadgostar are statistically significant.

The result means that Andersson enters the continued government negotiations with a significantly weaker level of personal trust than before the election, while her main political opponent now tops the list.