The Alliance received 49.27 percent of the votes (an increase by 1.03 pp from the previous election) and 173 seats in the parliament (a decrease by 5 seats and 2 short of an overall majority), while the Red-Greens received 43.60 percent of the vote (a decrease by 2.48 pp) and 156 seats (a decrease by 15 seats).[1] The election also saw the nationalist Sweden Democrats entering parliament for the first time, as the sixth largest and only non-aligned of the eight parties elected to the parliament, by receiving 5.70 percent of the votes (an increase by 2.77 pp) and 20 seats.[1] Both in terms of percentage share; 30.06%, and the actual vote; 1,791,766, the Moderate Party had its strongest election of the unicameral parliamentary era, narrowly missing out on beating the Social Democrats to become the largest party.[2] The Alliance dominated the Stockholm capital region of the municipality and county and made further gains in South Sweden including narrowly flipping Malmö blue as well as winning pluralities in traditionally red towns such as Kalmar, Landskrona and Trelleborg.[1]
The parties already represented in the Swedish parliament, along with the Swedish television networks, excluded minor parties from the televised political debates. The excluded minor parties included the Sweden Democrats,[9] the June List, the Feminist Initiative, and the Pirate Party.[citation needed]
After the election in September 2006, the Alliance slipped well behind the opposition in the polls. A Sifo poll conducted in February 2008 showed the opposition leading the Alliance by 19.4%. However, this lead steadily eroded during the second half of the Alliance's term, despite the opposition's uniting in the Red-Green co-operation in December 2008.
Campaign posters in StockholmPoll performance 2006-2010: Key parties ▄Red-Greencoalition █Social Democratic Party ▄The Alliance █Moderate Party
The Sweden Democrats were expected to enter the Parliament for the first time, as the party's polling results had exceeded the 4% entry threshold since June 2009. The Green Party had also made a significant transformation from the smallest elected party to the third largest party during the term, overtaking the Left Party, the Christian Democrats, the Liberals and even the Centre Party in most polls following the 2006 election.
Poll performance 2006-2010: Small parties █Green Party █Liberal People's Party ▄Centre Party █Left Party ▄Christian Democrats █Sweden Democrats █Other
Controversy about Sweden Democrats
The final election debate on SVT. Party leaders Hägglund (KD), Ohly (V), Björklund (FP), Sahlin (S), Reinfeldt (M), Wetterstrand (MP), and Olofsson (C).
The Sweden Democrats generated controversy before the election.[9] Both the Alliance and the Red-Greens pledged not to seek support from the SD,[7] with Reinfeldt ruling out forming a government in cooperation with the Sweden Democrats.[5]
A privately owned television network, TV4, refused to air a SD campaign video, which was then uploaded to YouTube and viewed more than one million times. The SD video portrayed a track-meet, in which the race is for pension funds. In the video, a Swedish pensioner is outrun by burka-clad women with prams.[9][10]
On 13 September in Gothenburg, about 500 counter-demonstrators prevented the Sweden Democrats from making a planned election rally.[14] Police used pepper spray to disperse the counter-demonstration, which lacked a permit, and seven counter-demonstrators were detained.[14] On 14 September, the Sweden Democrats cancelled planned rallies in three cities, Eskilstuna, Karlstad, and Uddevalla, because of security concerns. Similarly, concerns about security led to an election tour being cancelled on 15 September in Norrköping.[15][16]
After these cancelled election rallies, the National Police CommissionerBengt Svenson[sv] severely criticized the county police for failing to safeguard the Sweden Democrats: "If it is not possible to protect them [in those locales], the police have failed in its planning and execution of its mission. ... It is a serious problem when such meetings cannot be held, because it is our absolute duty to ensure that the constitutionally guaranteed rights be maintained and that all meetings can be held".[17]
Consequences
These attempts to limit the SD message were described by Al Jazeera as counterproductive, in that they enabled the SD to portray itself as a victim of censorship.[9]
Similarly, Hanne Kjöller of Dagens Nyheter hypothesised that the attacks strengthened the Sweden Democrats rather than hurting the party's support base. "Jimmie Åkesson becomes a poor underdog and the picture of a party that is holding some dangerous but important truth is enhanced. The Sweden Democrats should send flowers to the left-wing extremists, thanking them for the publicity."[18]
Results
Coalition dominance by municipality (colors aggravated, not linearly proportional).
Red‑Greens
Equal
The Alliance
Relative support of the Sweden Democrats by municipality.
As exit polls conducted by the national broadcaster Swedish Television predicted, the Sweden Democrats reached the 4% threshold needed to enter parliament, making this election the first in which they were able to enter parliament.[7]
A preliminary count of 5,668 voting districts showed the Alliance with 172 seats, ahead of the Red-Greens.[21] However, this fell short of the 175 seats needed for an absolute majority, and it appeared the Sweden Democrats would hold the balance of power in the new parliament.[22][23] Reinfeldt declared that he had no intention to cooperate with the Sweden Democrats.[24]
On 23 September, the final results showed the Centre Party gaining an adjustment seat in Dalarna, giving the Alliance a total seat count of 173, still two seats short of an absolute majority.[1] The Alliance's Liberal People's Party were only 7 and 19 votes short from gaining additional seats in Gothenburg and Värmland respectively,[25] but according to Svante Linusson, a professor in mathematics, the actual margin was still over 800 votes.[26][27]
On the day after the election, rallies against the Sweden Democrats took place in a number of Swedish cities. Reports indicated that 10,000 people were estimated to have marched in Stockholm under banners reading "We are ashamed", "No racists in Parliament",[28] and "Refugees – welcome!". In Gothenburg, 5,000 people took part in a "sorrow march against racism", and 2,000 people marched in Malmö. Support for the Sweden Democrats was strongest in the southernmost province Scania, where the party received about 10% of the vote, and in the neighbouring province Blekinge, where they received 9.8%.[29]
Liberal evening tabloid Expressen wrote in an editorial "The banner of tolerance has been hauled down and the forces of darkness have finally also taken the Swedish democracy as hostage. It's a day of sorrow." Liberal conservative morning newspaper Svenska Dagbladet said "[It is] time for the Swedes to get themselves a new national self-image [as the election] created a new picture of Sweden".[29]
While it's hard to say that Sweden has woken up to a new self-image, one can say that this is more like a normal European situation and is similar to other western European countries with a proportional election system, where a populist right-wing party has seats in parliament. It's the party that is the least liked among other voters, so it is not surprising that people have reacted with dismay
The election was a landmark for its impact on the Social Democrats, which had been in government for 65 of the last 78 years and who had never lost two consecutive elections. This was their worst result since universal suffrage in 1921. Swedish political scientist Stig-Björn Ljunggren said "The Social Democrats no longer symbolise the Swedish model. They've lost their magic." The Dagens Nyheter postulated that electoral failure was based on internal factors, such that the Social Democrats failed to win over the middle class and had completely lost touch with their original vision, which had made them a dominant political party.[30]
The Irish Times saw the rise of the SD as sending "ripples of shock not only through the country but through European politics," and asked "Is this finally it for the 'Swedish model'" that has been represented as a "meld of liberal values, high taxes, outstanding childcare and welfare that made the country the poster boy for European social democracy?" The Social Democrats' failure reflected the party's inability to adapt, an increasingly technocratic profile, a failure to address immigration concerns, as well as Reinfeldt's success in managing the economy. The results draws parallels with a larger decline of European left parties.[31] An article in Al Jazeera English asked if Western political dynamics were changing following the Swedish and United States elections. The article said that predictions after the election indicated "an entirely new political landscape" and "the beginning of an era of sharper political division in Sweden." It asked if the similar results "reflect rather an underlying continuity in the generation-long evolution of Euro-American politics towards a fully neoliberalised system" and that Sweden seemed to be "moving towards an outdated model." It also said that, while social policies were similarly moving to the right, economic policies were poles apart, with the emergence of far-right parties in Sweden and Denmark still supporting the welfare state and the American parties remaining on the economic right-wing.[32]
The case of Annika Holmqvist, a seriously ill 55-year-old woman who had her sickness benefits withdrawn and was requested to seek work, allegedly due to the Alliance's reforms of Sweden's social security system, gave the opposition a late boost in its campaign. The Local thinks it might have deprived the Alliance of an overall majority. Holmqvist's daughter wrote about her case in a web log post that gained publicity and became a hot topic in the debates. In spite of promises of a solution, after the election it was decided Holmqvist will lose her illness[citation needed] benefits.[33][34][35]
The Moderate Party was still seen as one of the big winners of the election because of its "well-executed campaign" that emphasised Sweden's "remarkable political and economic stability in a turbulent world" after Sweden weathered the recession; despite mass unemployment, the economic growth in 2010 was the highest in Western Europe.[5]
After the formation of the new government, Reinfeldt issued a 27-page government policy statement, saying it would "seek broad and responsible solutions", and that it would "be natural to hold regular discussions with primarily the Green Party but also the Social Democratic Party where appropriate".[37]
Related Research Articles
The Sweden Democrats is a nationalist and right-wing populist political party in Sweden founded in 1988. As of 2024, it is the largest member of Sweden's right-wing bloc and the second-largest party in the Riksdag. It provides confidence and supply to the centre-right ruling coalition. Within the European Union, the party is a member of the European Conservatives and Reformists Party.
The Moderate Party, commonly referred to as the Moderates, is a liberal-conservative political party in Sweden. The party generally supports tax cuts, the free market, civil liberties and economic liberalism. Globally, it is a full member of the International Democracy Union and the European People's Party.
The Liberals, previously known as the Liberal People's Party until 22 November 2015, is a conservative-liberal political party in Sweden. The Liberals ideologically have shown a broad variety of liberal tendencies. Currently they are seen as following classical liberalism and economic liberalism, and have been described as being centre-right. The party is a member of the Liberal International and Renew Europe.
The Christian Democrats is a Christian democratic political party in Sweden founded in March 1964. It first entered parliament in 1985, through electoral cooperation with the Centre Party; in 1991, the party won seats on its own. The party leader since 25 April 2015 has been Ebba Busch.
The Green Party, commonly referred to as Miljöpartiet in Swedish, is a political party in Sweden based on green politics.
John Fredrik Reinfeldt is a Swedish economist, lecturer, former Prime Minister of Sweden from 2006 to 2014 and chairman of the liberal conservative Moderate Party from 2003 to 2015. He was the last rotating President of the European Council in 2009. He is chairman of the Swedish Football Association since 25 March 2023.
Lars Erik Ansgar Leijonborg is a Swedish politician, Minister for Higher Education and Research 2006-2009 and Head of the Ministry of Education and Research 2006–2007. During a ten-year period from 1997 to 2007, he served as chairman of the Liberal People's Party.
General elections were held in Sweden on 17 September 2006, to elect members to the Riksdag, the Swedish national legislature. All 349 seats were up for election: 310 fixed seats in 29 constituencies and 39 adjustment seats, used to ensure that parties have representation in the Riksdag proportional to their share of the national vote. The electoral system used was semi-open list proportional representation using the Sainte-Laguë method of allocating seats. Elections for County and Municipal councils were also held on the same day.
Ulf Hjalmar Kristersson is a Swedish politician who has been serving as Prime Minister of Sweden since 2022. He has been the leader of the Moderate Party (M) since October 2017 and a member of parliament (MP) for Södermanland County since 2014 and for Stockholm County from 1991 to 2000. He previously served as Minister for Social Security from 2010 to 2014 and as Chairman of the Moderate Youth League from 1988 to 1992.
The Alliance, was a centre-right liberal-conservative political alliance in Sweden. The Alliance consisted of the four centre-right political parties in the Riksdag. The Alliance was formed while in opposition, and later achieved a majority government in the 2006 general election and a minority government in the 2010 general election, governing Sweden from 2006 to 2014 with Fredrik Reinfeldt of the Moderate Party serving as Prime Minister of Sweden until 2014. The Alliance was co-chaired by every component party's individual leaders.
Per Jimmie Åkesson is a Swedish politician and author, serving as leader of the Sweden Democrats since 2005. He has been a member of the Riksdag (SD) for Jönköping County since 2010. He previously served as leader of the Sweden Democratic Youth from 2000 until 2005.
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Kjell Stefan Löfven is a Swedish politician who has served as the President of European Socialists since October 2022. He previously served as Prime Minister of Sweden from October 2014 to November 2021 and leader of the Social Democratic Party from 2012 to 2021.
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