1985 Swedish general election
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All 349 seats in the Riksdag 175 seats needed for a majority | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 Map of the election, showing the distribution of constituency and levelling seats, as well as the largest political bloc within each constituency. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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General elections were held in
Riksdag, winning 159 of the 349 seats.[2]
Its leader, Olof Palme, kept his position as Prime Minister. He would retain this position successfully until his assassination in 1986.
Campaign
At a campaign meeting in Sundsvall on 22 August, Minister of Social Welfare Sten Andersson promised to increase the state pensions as a compensation for the price increases following the devaluation of the krona in 1982. The Social Democrat (Socialdemokraterna) government also stressed that it had managed to decrease the budget deficit from 90 billion to 60 billion kronas. The Social Democrats also promised not to increase taxes or lower the quality of the welfare system.
The
previous election in 1982. The Christian Democrats only gained one seat in parliament for its leader, Alf Svensson
.
The political debate was dominated by the
SIFO
in June 1985, but its support decreased during the campaign.
The
Liberal People's Party had chosen Bengt Westerberg as its party leader in October 1983; he had had trouble getting his message through, not least because of the party's small size in parliament and its only receiving 5.9 percent support in the 1982 election. However, in August Westerberg became viewed by the public as a calm and honest politician, in comparison to the constantly arguing Adelsohn
and Palme. The Liberal People's Party was the big winner of the 1985 election, increasing its support to 14.2 percent.
Debates
| 1985 Swedish general election debates | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Date | Time | Organisers | Moderators | P Present I Invitee N Non-invitee | |||||
| S | M | C | L | V | Refs | ||||
| 28 August 1985 | P Olof Palme |
P Ulf Adelsohn |
N Thorbjörn Fälldin |
N Ola Ullsten |
N Lars Werner |
[3] | |||
Results
The Centre Party and Christian Democratic Unity (CDU) ran a joint list in some constituencies under the name "Centre".[4] One CDU candidate was elected on the Centre list, the first time the party had had parliamentary representation.[2]
 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Votes | % | Seats | +/– | |
| Swedish Social Democratic Party | 2,487,551 | 44.68 | 159 | –7 | |
| Moderate Party | 1,187,335 | 21.33 | 76 | –10 | |
| People's Party | 792,268 | 14.23 | 51 | +30 | |
| Centre Party | 490,999 | 8.82 | 43 | –13 | |
| Left Party Communists | 298,419 | 5.36 | 19 | –1 | |
| Christian Democratic Unity | 131,548 | 2.36 | 0 | 0 | |
| Green Party | 83,645 | 1.50 | 0 | 0 | |
| Centre (CDU–C) | 73,711 | 1.32 | 1 | – | |
| Other parties | 21,546 | 0.39 | 0 | 0 | |
| Total | 5,567,022 | 100.00 | 349 | 0 | |
| Valid votes | 5,567,022 | 99.14 | |||
| Invalid/blank votes | 48,220 | 0.86 | |||
| Total votes | 5,615,242 | 100.00 | |||
| Registered voters/turnout | 6,249,445 | 89.85 | |||
| Source: Nohlen & Stöver | |||||
Seat distribution
| Constituency | Total seats |
Seats won | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| By party | By coalition | |||||||||
| S | M | F | C | V | KDS | Left | Right | |||
Älvsborg North
|
10 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 6 | |||
Älvsborg South
|
7 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 4 | |||
| Blekinge | 6 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 3 | |||
Bohus
|
12 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 7 | |||
| Fyrstadskretsen | 20 | 9 | 6 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 10 | 10 | ||
| Gävleborg | 13 | 7 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 8 | 5 | ||
| Gothenburg | 18 | 7 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 9 | 9 | ||
| Gotland | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |||||
| Halland | 10 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 6 | |||
| Jämtland | 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 2 | ||||
| Jönköping | 13 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 5 | 8 | ||
| Kalmar | 10 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 5 | |||
Kopparberg
|
12 | 6 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 7 | 5 | ||
| Kristianstad | 12 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 7 | |||
| Kronoberg | 7 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 4 | |||
| Malmöhus | 12 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 7 | |||
| Norrbotten | 11 | 7 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 8 | 3 | ||
| Örebro | 12 | 6 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 7 | 5 | ||
| Östergötland | 16 | 8 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 9 | 7 | ||
Skaraborg
|
11 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 6 | |||
| Södermanland | 9 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 4 | |||
| Stockholm County | 36 | 14 | 11 | 6 | 2 | 3 | 17 | 19 | ||
| Stockholm Municipality | 29 | 11 | 9 | 5 | 1 | 3 | 14 | 15 | ||
| Uppsala | 11 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 6 | 5 | ||
Värmland
|
12 | 6 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 7 | 5 | ||
| Västerbotten | 11 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 6 | 5 | ||
| Västernorrland | 11 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 7 | 4 | ||
| Västmanland | 11 | 6 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 7 | 4 | ||
| Total | 349 | 159 | 76 | 51 | 43 | 19 | 1 | 178 | 171 | |
| 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. -
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 1982 to the 1985 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. -
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
- ISBN 978-3-8329-5609-7
- ^ a b Nohlen & Stöver, p1873
- ^ Valet 1985 - Duellen - Olof Palme (S) och Ulf Adelsohn (M), retrieved 2024-02-01
- ^ Nohlen & Stöver, p1869
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