Swedes are voting today in a general election dominated by immigration and the future of the large public sector with opinion polls suggesting the Social Democrats would narrowly retain power.
Voters have to decide whether they want to go on paying the world's highest taxes to finance their welfare state, or prefer a rightist recipe of tax cuts, privatisation and deregulation.
The result will show whether Sweden becomes part of the conservative tide that has swept aside many left-wing European governments in recent years - though centre-right party leaders still disagree on who should be prime minister if they win.
Prime Minister Goran Persson, leader of the Social Democrats who have ruled Sweden for six of the past seven decades, said he expected to carry on governing with the help of the Left Party and the Greens.
"We on our side agree on many domestic policy issues," he said of his minority government's cooperation in parliament with the Left and Greens for the past four years. "It has worked well between us and I am not worried that it will not do so in the future," he told TV4 television.
Bo Lundgren, leader of the opposition Moderates, was also confident and said the four-party center-right alliance stood a good chance.
"I think we non-socialist parties have done very well in the election campaign and that we have a very good chance of winning tonight," Lundgren told reporters after casting his ballot in the smart Ostermalm district in downtown Stockholm.
The daily newspaper Dagens Nyheter said today that the last opinion polls from seven different research institutes all pointed to a very narrow win for the left.