Support for Swedish coalition rises after call for snap vote: poll

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Support for Sweden's Social Democrat-Green ruling coalition has grown after the government earlier in December said it planned to call a snap election, a poll published in daily Dagens Nyheter showed on Thursday. The governing Social Democrats and Greens plus the Left party which offers support from outside government had the backing of 44.1 percent of Swedish voters, a poll by Ipsos said, up from 42.1 percent in Ipsos' last poll in November. Support for Sweden's main center-right opposition fell to 40.8 percent in December from 41.9 percent in November. The unaligned anti-immigration Sweden Democrats, who helped trigger this month's political crisis by voting down a government budget, saw their support unchanged from November at 12.5 percent. Prime Minister Stefan Lofven plans to call for a snap election on Dec. 29, with the ballot scheduled to take place on March 22. The last election was in September, which returned a minority center-left government and left the Sweden Democrats holding the balance of power. The IPSOS poll of 1,403 people was conducted between Dec. 8 and Dec. 15. (Reporting by Olof Swahnberg; Editing by Crispian Balmer)