Sweden's conservative Tidö coalition government, led by Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, has doubled the number of state-funded IVF treatments available to first-time parents from three to six, and has promised to extend free IVF to subsequent children if re-elected in the September parliamentary vote. The move comes as Sweden recorded its lowest birth rate in 23 years in 2025, with just 97,500 births and a fertility rate of 1.42 children per woman. The policy is widely seen as a way for the right-wing bloc — which governs with the support of the nationalist Sweden Democrats (Sverigedemokraterna) — to address an ageing population and labour shortfall without resorting to immigration, which has become politically toxic amid years of gang violence linked to earlier waves of migration.