1979 Swedish general election

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1979 Swedish general election

← 1976 16 September 1979 1982 →

All 349 seats in the Riksdag
175 seats needed for a majority
  First party Second party Third party
 
Leader Olof Palme Gösta Bohman Thorbjörn Fälldin
Party Social Democrats Moderate Centre
Last election 152 55 86
Seats won 154 73 64
Seat change Increase2 Increase18 Decrease22
Popular vote 2,356,234 1,108,406 984,589
Percentage 43.24% 20.34% 18.07%
Swing Increase0.49pp Increase4.75pp Decrease6.01pp

  Fourth party Fifth party
 
Leader Ola Ullsten Lars Werner
Party People's Party Left Communists
Last election 39 17
Seats won 38 20
Seat change Decrease1 Increase3
Popular vote 577,063 305,420
Percentage 10.59% 5.61%
Swing Decrease0.47pp Increase0.86pp

Map of the election, showing the distribution of constituency and levelling seats, as well as the largest political bloc within each constituency.

PM before election

Ola Ullsten
People's Party

Elected PM

Thorbjörn Fälldin
Centre

General elections were held in

People's Party, the Moderate Party and the Centre Party, led by Centre Party leader Thorbjörn Fälldin. The three parties together won 175 seats, compared to the 174 won by the Social Democrats and Communists. It was the only time that non-socialist parties retained power in an election between 1928 and 2010. The Moderates dramatically increased their representation in the Riksdag, becoming the largest party of the non-socialist bloc, a position they maintained until 2022
.

Despite the unexpected victory, the coalition split in 1981 when the Moderates withdrew support in protest at Fälldin's tax policies, which they viewed as "too leftist". Despite not being the leader of the coalition party with the most seats, Fälldin had been the designate Prime Minister since his earlier resignation in 1978, upon disagreement over the question of nuclear power.

Debates

1979 Swedish general election debates
Date Time Organizers Moderators  P  Present    I  Invitee  N  Non-invitee 
S M C L V Refs
Sveriges Television Ingemar Odlander P
Olof Palme
P
Gösta Bohman
P
Thorbjörn Fälldin
P
Ola Ullsten
P
Lars Werner
[3]

Results

PartyVotes%Seats+/–
Swedish Social Democratic Party2,356,23443.24154+2
Moderate Party1,108,40620.3473+18
Centre Party984,58918.0764–22
People's Party577,06310.5938–1
Left Party Communists305,4205.6120+3
Christian Democratic Unity75,9931.3900
Communist Party10,8620.2000
Workers Party Communists10,7250.200New
Other parties19,3460.3600
Total5,448,638100.003490
Valid votes5,448,63899.43
Invalid/blank votes31,4880.57
Total votes5,480,126100.00
Registered voters/turnout6,040,46190.72
Source: Nohlen & Stöver

Seat distribution

Constituency Total
seats
Seats won
By party By coalition
S M C F V Right Left
Älvsborg North
9 4 2 2 1 5 4
Älvsborg South
8 3 2 2 1 5 3
Blekinge 6 3 1 1 1 3 3
Bohus
11 4 3 2 2 7 4
Fyrstadskretsen 21 9 6 2 3 1 11 10
Gävleborg 13 7 1 3 1 1 5 8
Gothenburg 19 7 5 2 3 2 10 9
Gotland 2 1 1 1 1
Halland 10 4 2 3 1 6 4
Jämtland 5 3 2 2 3
Jönköping 13 5 3 3 2 8 5
Kalmar 10 5 2 2 1 5 5
Kopparberg
13 6 2 3 1 1 6 7
Kristianstad 11 5 3 2 1 6 5
Kronoberg 7 3 2 2 4 3
Malmöhus 11 5 3 2 1 6 5
Norrbotten 11 6 1 2 1 1 4 7
Örebro 12 6 2 2 1 1 5 7
Östergötland 17 8 3 3 2 1 8 9
Skaraborg
10 4 2 3 1 6 4
Södermanland 11 6 2 2 1 5 6
Stockholm County 33 13 9 4 4 3 17 16
Stockholm Municipality 31 11 9 3 4 4 16 15
Uppsala 10 4 2 2 1 1 5 5
Värmland
12 6 2 2 1 1 5 7
Västerbotten 10 5 1 2 1 1 4 6
Västernorrland 12 6 1 3 1 1 5 7
Västmanland 11 5 2 2 1 1 5 6
Total 349 154 73 64 38 20 175 174
Source: Statistics Sweden

By municipality

  • Votes by municipality. The municipalities are the color of the party that got the most votes within the coalition that won relative majority.
    Votes by municipality. The municipalities are the color of the party that got the most votes within the coalition that won relative majority.
  • Cartogram of the map to the left with each municipality rescaled to the number of valid votes cast.
    Cartogram of the map to the left with each municipality rescaled to the number of valid votes cast.
  • Map showing the voting shifts from the 1976 to the 1979 election. Darker blue indicates a municipality voted more towards the parties that formed the centre-right bloc. Darker red indicates a municipality voted more towards the parties that form the left-wing bloc.
    Map showing the voting shifts from the 1976 to the 1979 election. Darker blue indicates a municipality voted more towards the parties that formed the centre-right bloc. Darker red indicates a municipality voted more towards the parties that form the left-wing bloc.
  • Votes by municipality as a scale from red/Left-wing bloc to blue/Centre-right bloc.
    Votes by municipality as a scale from red/Left-wing bloc to blue/Centre-right bloc.
  • Cartogram of vote with each municipality rescaled in proportion to number of valid votes cast. Deeper blue represents a relative majority for the centre-right coalition, brighter red represents a relative majority for the left-wing coalition.
    Cartogram of vote with each municipality rescaled in proportion to number of valid votes cast. Deeper blue represents a relative majority for the centre-right coalition, brighter red represents a relative majority for the left-wing coalition.

References

  1. ^ Nohlen & Stöver, p1873
  2. ^ Sweden, Sveriges Television AB, Stockholm, Slutdebatter – Partiledardebatt (in Swedish), retrieved 2024-01-29{{citation}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)