Sweden's 3-month-old minority center-left government announced a deal with the opposition on Saturday to sideline the anti-immigration Sweden Democrats, who hold the balance of power in parliament, and avert a fresh election.

Sweden's normally stable politics were thrown into turmoil in December when Prime Minister Stefan Lofven said he planned to return to the polls after his budget was voted down by the center-right opposition and the Sweden Democrats.

The Sweden Democrats had threatened to bring down any government that did not curb rising immigration, and to turn a snap election — which would have been the first since 1958 — into a referendum on Sweden's liberal refugee policies.