In the election, the Center Party was the party that lost the most seats in the Riksdag.

In the voter barometer for September, the Center Party retreats another percentage point compared to the election results, landing at 5.7 percent.

- The Center Party's decline is statistically assured, while the change in the other parties' results is within the margin of error, says Torbjörn Sjöström, CEO of Novus.

The Sweden Democrats are still the second largest party in the survey with 20.8 percent, while the Moderates get 19.6 percent and the Social Democrats 31.1 percent.

The party sympathy survey from SVT/Novus in September.

Graphics: Björn Frykmo.

"Have ended up in the red-green block"

Under Annie Lööf's leadership, the Center Party has lost voters, especially in the countryside, and the party has left bourgeois cooperation to join hands with the Social Democrats.

After the election, critical voices have been raised within the party.

- I think we have navigated wrong - especially from the side of the party leadership strategically - that we have ended up in the red-green bloc, says Magnus Thulin (C), deputy in the Riksdag and regional councilor Skåne.  

He is one of several centrist parties in the country who want the party to drop its fierce opposition to the Sweden Democrats:

- Going forward, I think we should be an independent bourgeois force that gets the Center Party's policy through, and that means in practice that we probably have to cooperate with all parties in Sweden's Riksdag, says Magnus Thulin.

New party leader – new path choice?

In February, the party will elect a new party leader at an extraordinary general meeting, and an internal nomination process is currently underway.

Currently, only MEP Emma Wiesner has said openly that she is running for the post.

Despite the internal debate, party secretary Michael Arthursson does not believe that C will follow the same path as the Liberals.

- I don't think that C will enter into any organized cooperation with the Sweden Democrats, but what stance a new party leader will take exactly is not for me to answer.