Sweden's four conservative-liberal opposition parties presented their first joint alternative budget on Tuesday morning, as part of their response to the government's spring budget unveiled last month.
Prime minister Göran Persson has used his annual May 1st speech, held in Tornparken in Sundbyberg, to deliver a broad attack on the opposition alliance.
Sweden's two big parties, the Social Democrats and the Moderates, are the losers in the latest opinion poll carried out by Skop. The Liberal Party and the Left Party have climbed most in the ratings.
The latest monthly survey of voters' intentions shows that Sweden's two political blocs are almost neck and neck, less than five months before the election.
Swedes would prefer to see opposition leader Fredrik Reinfeldt head the country's government after a general election in September than current Prime Minister Göran Persson, a poll on Saturday has shown.
Cut defence spending in half, extend parental benefits, create 40,000 new jobs in the public sector and introduce a 35-hour working week: just a few of the causes which Sweden's Green Party will be fighting for in the forthcoming election.
An evidently satisfied Pär Nuder made the traditional finance minister's budget walk from the Finance Department to parliament on Tuesday under cloudy Stockholm skies.
Voters' confidence in Fredrik Reinfeldt and Maud Olofsson is declining rapidly - but Reinfeldt, the leader of the Moderates, is still Sweden's most trusted party leader.
<b>See also: The Local's Guide to the <a href="http://www.thelocal.se/guides/?to=swedish_election_sweden&title=the+Swedish+Election+2006">Swedish Election 2006</a></b>
The Moderates are losing support while the ruling Social Democrats and their coalition partners are once again leading over the opposition alliance in the opinion polls, according to the latest research by Skop.
This year's election campaign will be the first in which political parties will be able to spread their message via tv advertising. New broadcasting regulations, with no requirement for impartiality, make the change possible. But the parties themselves have their doubts.
The opposition Alliance continues to lead in election opinion polls, buoyed by increased support for the Christian Democrats, according to the March survey conducted by Dagens Nyheter and market research company TEMO.
The Liberal party has come to an agreement with the government on a series of justice-related issues. A close cooperation between Liberal Johan Pehrson and justice minister Thomas Bodström has resulted in six proposals.
Sweden's Left Party has fallen by 1.5% in the latest opinion poll carried out by Skop. The party is now on 5.4%, and the slip breaks the upward trend of the last three surveys.
The Social Democrat worker who spread defamatory emails about Moderate leader Fredrik Reinfeldt was identified late on Friday as Mats Lindström, a key advisor to Prime Minister Göran Persson.
A member of staff at the Social Democrats' party headquarters was behind an email smear campaign targeting the leader of the Moderate Party, Fredrik Reinfeldt.
Sweden's ruling Social Democratic Party and its parliamentary allies would lose power if an election were held now, a poll published Friday showed, less than seven months before the country's general election.
The three other conservative alliance leaders have rejected Liberal leader Lars Leijonborg's idea that all four parties could stand as one at the forthcoming election.
The leader of the Liberal Party, Lars Leijonborg, has said that he is open to the idea of the four conservative opposition parties standing as one at the forthcoming election.
The June List and the Feminist Initiative will be the paupers of this year's election, relying on private donations and sales of promotional material to fund their campaigns.
