The Christian Democrats improved their result the most in Statistics Sweden's major party sympathy survey, climbing 6.7 percentage points since Sweden's general election in September – and a whopping 10.1 percentage points compared to the same survey a year ago.

This would put the party at 13 percent of the vote if an election were held today, a significant share for what is normally one of the smaller right-wing parties in parliament.

The charisma of party leader Ebba Busch-Thor and her uncompromising stance on a number of issues appear to have won the party support. However, the party performed worse than expected in last month's European election, with 8.62 percent of the vote, after questions were raised over its views on abortion.

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The Christian Democrats' gains in the new Statistics Sweden survey primarily came from former supporters of the Moderates – long seen as the leader of Sweden's centre-right bloc – and the anti-immigration Sweden Democrats.

Sweden's ruling centre-left party, the Social Democrats, were the winners of Statistics Sweden's party sympathy poll with 27.6 percent of respondents saying they would vote for them if an election were to be held today.

The new survey compared to the parties' results in the last Swedish parliamentary election. From left, Centre Party, Liberals, Moderates, Christian Democrats, Social Democrats, Left Party, Greens and Sweden Democrats. Photo: Statistics Sweden

The Sweden Democrats remained at more or less the same score as in September, but still overtook the Moderate Party, which dropped from 19.8 percent in the election to 16 percent today.

Sweden's 2018 election – followed by a long period without a government and tough negotiations – began a redrawing of the country's political map, and it is still not clear where the chips will ultimately fall.

The Centre Party and the Liberals' legislative pact with the Green Party and Social Democrats solved the government negotiation conflict, but infuriated its old Moderate and Christian Democrat partners.

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As for the Sweden Democrats, they have made no secret of the fact that they would like to be seen as part of a new conservative bloc with the Moderates and Christian Democrats. Such a bloc would get 46.1 percent of the vote if an election were held today, according to Statistics Sweden.

For the party sympathy survey, pollsters asked a total of 4,500 respondents in May which party they would vote for if a parliamentary election were to be held in the next few days.

Sweden's next general election will be held in September 2022.