2006 Swedish general election

2006 Swedish general election
← elected members →
All 349 seats in the Riksdag; 175 seats needed for a majority
Prime Minister before election; Göran Persson; Social Democrats	Elected Prime Minister ; Fredrik Reinfeldt; Moderate

General elections were held in

County and Municipal

councils were also held on the same day.

Social Democrats

were ousted after twelve years in power. It was the country's first majority government since the second Fälldin cabinet fell in 1981.

Reinfeldt reached out to working-class votes in the re-branding as the 'New Moderates', which resulted in sizeable gains in historically left-wing locations in densely populated areas. As a result, several municipalities that had never voted blue before in Stockholm County flipped.^[1] This, combined with a landslide overall win in the capital region as a whole and strong showings in Scania tipped the balance in favour of the Alliance. The centre-right bloc also flipped the crucial populous municipalities Gothenburg, Linköping, Uppsala and Västerås.^[1]

The Social Democrats recorded around 35% of the overall support, which was the party's worst showing in the post-war era. Although the red-green parties received a higher proportion of the vote than in the 1991 hung parliament loss, the coalition fell short of a majority by seven seats, or two percentage points of the popular vote.^[1]

The Alliance did not reach 50% of the vote, courtesy of several minor parties gathering up 5.67% of the overall vote.^[1] This was the final election before the Sweden Democrats entered the Riksdag, with the party getting close to three percent of the vote, falling short by just above one percentage point. The election also saw the party get above 10% in Bjuv Municipality in its Scanian heartlands and above the parliamentary threshold in the country's five southernmost constituencies.^[1]

Campaign

The

Alliance for Sweden

for further information.

The Alliance enjoyed a leading position for over a year over the red-green parties, according to most polls. However the gap between the two blocs (s, v, and mp are assumed to work together) began to close rapidly in January 2006, and the red-green parties took the lead in May 2006; indeed they were ahead of the Alliance in every poll conducted in May and June. However, there was a late shift in opinion back to the Alliance during the summer: in mid-August all polls showed the Alliance leading the red-green parties comfortably.

Unemployment

The Social Democrat government's perceived failure to reduce unemployment was a major issue in the campaign, especially considering the good performance of the

labour market because they do not have a job or are studying".^[5] If those who are "wholly or partially outside the labour market" are included then the figure rises to 1,700,000.^[6] This gloomy view of the unemployment situation was raised by Jan Edling, a former economist for the Swedish Trade Union Confederation (LO). However, compared with other OECD countries Sweden has a low "broad unemployment", as was pointed out by the Green Party's Peter Eriksson in the debate.^[7]

Alliance for Sweden proposed to address the problem by cutting

sick pay

, they would attack the most needy in society rather than helping them as Alliance for Sweden claimed.

In addition the Centre Party proposed a special youth

Chairperson

of LO, wrote:

"[Maud Olofsson's] new proposal to abolish job security for the young will not result in more jobs. It will only lead to increased insecurity and an even larger exclusion... More than half of youths under 25 who work already have an insecure job; a time-limited job of some sort. This is most usual among our young female members. The most insecure jobs, 'need-employment' or the so-called 'phone and run locum' is entirely on the employer's terms. Every morning many people sit and wait for their employer to ring. Am I needed today or not?".^[12]

Olofsson replied two days later in the same newspaper:

"What LO's Chairperson has not understood is that those youths who already have a job are not covered by our proposal. It does however give a new opportunity for the 146,000 youths who are wholly or partially living in the exclusion the Social Democrats have created... One of the main reasons why companies don't take on new staff is that the risk is too large. If the gamble doesn't pay off then the costs are too great. By lowering the threshold for job creation we are convinced that many youths will be able to take their first steps onto a labour market that they today have never been able to set foot on. We are equally convinced that the great majority of these youths will show their employers that they were right to dare to employ them".^[13]

A survey carried out by the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise (Svenskt Näringsliv) indicates that 41% of Swedish companies believe that such a contract would increase their willingness to hire young people "to a great extent" and that 51% believe that it would increase it "to a certain extent". 7% of those surveyed said that they did not think that they would be more willing to hire.^[14]^[15]

Computer break-in by Liberal People's Party members

On 4 September 2006, only two weeks before the general election, the Social Democratic Party reported to the police a computer break-in into its internal network. It has been reported that members of the Liberal People's Party copied secret information, not yet officially released, on at least two occasions for the purpose of counter-attacking Social Democratic political propositions. On 5 September the Liberal Party Secretary Johan Jakobsson [sv] voluntarily resigned. Leading members of the party and its youth organization are under police investigation suspected for criminal activity.

Opinion polls

The charts below show the results of pre-election polls conducted by the five major polling institutes in Sweden.

TEMO has a summary of all polls conducted since the election in 2002, and is therefore cited as the reference for each poll.

Temo

Party		August 2006	July 2006	June 2006	May 2006	April 2006	March 2006	February 2006	January 2006	December 2005	November 2005	October 2005	September 2005	Last election
	Social Democrats (s)	37.7%	34.8%	36.8%	38.3%	36.5%	34.9%	36.3%	34.3%	34.5%	35.7%	32.1%	35.5%	39.9%
	Moderate Party (m)	28.0%	28.6%	26.3%	26.9%	27.9%	29.2%	28.4%	30.9%	30.3%	27.6%	31.6%	31.4%	15.3%
	Liberal People's Party (fp)	9.8%	10.2%	9.9%	8.7%	9.9%	9.7%	10.5%	10.0%	10.4%	9.4%	9.4%	8.7%	13.4%
	Christian Democrats (kd)	5.4%	5.6%	5.6%	5.9%	6.3%	6.4%	5.1%	4.4%	4.9%	4.0%	4.3%	3.7%	9.1%
	Left Party (v)	3.6%	4.7%	5.9%	5.4%	5.1%	6.2%	6.0%	6.2%	5.2%	6.1%	5.9%	5.7%	8.4%
	Centre Party (c)	6.1%	5.7%	5.8%	6.3%	6.0%	5.3%	6.2%	5.6%	6.2%	6.5%	5.6%	6.8%	6.2%
	Green Party (mp)	5.3%	5.8%	4.5%	4.9%	5.3%	5.1%	4.6%	4.8%	5.2%	4.8%	4.6%	4.7%	4.6%
	June List (jl)	-	-	-	-	-	-	1.2%	1.0%	3.2%	4.5%	-	-	NA

	Alliance for Sweden (m, c, fp, kd)	49.3%	50.1%	47.6%	47.8%	50.1%	50.6%	50.2%	50.9%	51.8%	47.5%	50.9%	50.6%	44.0%
	Red-Green bloc (s, v, mp)	46.5%	45.2%	47.2%	48.6%	46.8%	46.2%	46.9%	45.3%	44.9%	46.6%	42.6%	45.9%	52.9%
	Undecided (?)	22.6%	22.8%	18.6%	19.6%	20.3%	21.2%	NA%	NA%	NA%	NA%	NA%	NA%	NA

^[16]

Sifo

Party		7 September 2006	August 2006	August 2006	August 2006	June 2006	May 2006	April 2006	March 2006	February 2006	January 2006	December 2005	Last election
	Social Democrats (s)	35.7%	35.8%	34.1%	34.6%	37.6%	36.6%	36.2%	36.2%	34.9%	35.3%	33.2%	39.9%
	Moderate Party (m)	26.0%	24.3%	28.6%	26.7%	26.9%	25.2%	26.2%	28.2%	28.1%	30.9%	29.7%	15.3%
	Liberal People's Party (fp)	7.6%	10.2%	11.1%	10.3%	9.2%	11.7%	11.5%	10.2%	10.7%	9.3%	10.6%	13.4%
	Christian Democrats (kd)	7.5%	6.5%	7.0%	6.9%	5.0%	5.2%	5.4%	5.9%	6.0%	4.8%	4.6%	9.1%
	Left Party (v)	7.1%	5.6%	5.9%	5.6%	6.1%	6.8%	6.4%	5.6%	6.0%	6.7%	6%	8.4%
	Centre Party (c)	6.2%	6.7%	4.9%	6.6%	6.2%	5.8%	5.3%	6.7%	5.8%	6.9%	6.7%	6.2%
	Green Party (mp)	5.7%	6.0%	4.5%	5.9%	5.2%	5.5%	5.2%	4.4%	4.9%	4.1%	4.5%	4.6%
	June List (jl)	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	2.2%	-	-	-	NA

	Alliance for Sweden (m, c, fp, kd)	47.3%	47.7%	51.5%	50.5%	47.3%	47.9%	48.4%	51.0%	50.6%	51.9%	51.6%	44.0%
	Red-Green bloc (s, v, mp)	48.2%	47.3%	44.9%	46.1%	48.9%	48.9%	47.8%	46.2%	45.8%	46.1%	43.7%	52.9%
	Undecided (?)	-	15.1%	20.0%	19.2%	17.6%	17.4%	18.9%	16.2%	17.8%	17.9%	20.5%	NA

^[16]

Demoskop

Party		August 2006	July 2006	June 2006	May 2006	April 2006	March 2006	February 2006	January 2006	December 2005	November 2005	October 2005	September 2005	August 2005	July 2005	Last election
	Social Democrats (s)	33.7%	35.7%	37.4%	36.2%	37.8%	36.4%	36.3%	37.9%	31.9%	33.1%	35.3%	35.8%	31.7%	29.3%	39.9%
	Moderate Party (m)	30.4%	30.9%	27.4%	30.3%	30.0%	31.0%	31.6%	30.8%	30.5%	31.3%	30.8%	30.6%	31.6%	35.8%	15.3%
	Liberal People's Party (fp)	9.9%	8.0%	8.8%	10.0%	8.8%	9.3%	9.1%	10.1%	9.7%	9.3%	11%	8.7%	10.8%	9.7%	13.4%
	Christian Democrats (kd)	5.5%	5.3%	5.7%	4.0%	4.9%	3.6%	4.0%	3.6%	4.5%	3.1%	3.3%	4.0%	4.8%	4.3%	9.1%
	Left Party (v)	6.9%	4.4%	6.9%	7.1%	5.2%	4.5%	7.2%	5.6%	6.7%	7.3%	5.9%	8.1%	5.2%	6.2%	8.4%
	Centre Party (c)	4.6%	7.3%	5.4%	3.6%	4.8%	5.9%	4.7%	4.2%	6.3%	6.7%	4.7%	5.8%	7.8%	6.5%	6.2%
	Green Party (mp)	5.2%	4.2%	6.2%	5.5%	4.9%	5.1%	5.5%	6.2%	6.2%	4.2%	4.2%	4.4%	6.2%	4.7%	4.6%

	Alliance for Sweden (m, c, fp, kd)	50.5%	51.5%	47.3%	47.9%	48.5%	49.8%	49.4%	48.7%	51.0%	50.4%	49.8%	49.1%	55.0%	56.3%	44.0%
	Red-Green bloc (s, v, mp)	45.8%	44.3%	50.5%	48.8%	47.9%	46.0%	49.0%	49.7%	44.8%	44.6%	45.4%	48.3%	43.1%	40.2%	52.9%

^[16]

Skop

Party		August 2006	July 2006	June 2006	May 2006	April 2006	March 2006	February 2006	January 2006	December 2005	Last election
	Social Democrats (s)	35.5%	34.5%	36.2%	37.8%	34.7%	39.0%	36.3%	35.9%	36.9%	39.9%
	Moderate Party (m)	26.9%	24.2%	25.3%	24.8%	21.9%	23.5%	26.7%	23.9%	24.2%	15.3%
	Liberal People's Party (fp)	10.1%	10.9%	12.0%	10.2%	12.7%	9.6%	11.0%	11.8%	10.7%	13.4%
	Christian Democrats (kd)	7.2%	6.8%	6.2%	6.4%	6.9%	6.4%	6.0%	6.6%	4.6%	9.1%
	Left Party (v)	4.4%	5.9%	5.9%	6.5%	7.6%	5.7%	5.4%	6.9%	6.3%	8.4%
	Centre Party (c)	6.1%	7.2%	5.9%	6.2%	7.4%	6.9%	6.4%	6.6%	6.9%	6.2%
	Green Party (mp)	5.1%	6.6%	4.8%	4.8%	5.3%	5.7%	5.0%	4.6%	6.9%	4.6%
	June List (jl)	2.0%	1.2%	-	1.4%	-	1.0%	1.0%	1.6%	1.6%	NA

	Alliance for Sweden (m, c, fp, kd)	50.3%	49.1%	49.4%	47.6%	48.9%	46.4%	50.1%	48.9%	46.4%	44.0%
	Red-Green bloc (s, v, mp)	45.3%	47.3%	46.9%	49.1%	47.2%	50.4%	46.7%	47.4%	50.1%	52.9%

^[16]

Ruab

Party		August 2006	June 2006	May 2006	April 2006	March 2006	February 2006	January 2006	December 2005	Last election
	Social Democrats (s)	40.4%	37.2%	36.8%	35.2%	37.1%	35.4%	36.4%	38.0%	39.9%
	Moderate Party (m)	29.1%	30.4%	29.9%	32.9%	30.2%	32.0%	31.3%	29.0%	15.3%
	Liberal People's Party (fp)	8.7%	8.4%	8.8%	8.9%	11.0%	9.7%	8.7%	9.3%	13.4%
	Christian Democrats (kd)	5.0%	4.7%	4.7%	5.2%	2.8%	3.7%	4.0%	4.2%	9.1%
	Left Party (v)	4.6%	5.5%	7.1%	5.6%	5.3%	4.9%	5.0%	4.2%	8.4%
	Centre Party (c)	5.1%	5.0%	4.6%	4.5%	5.8%	4.7%	6.8%	6.7%	6.2%
	Green Party (mp)	4.6%	6.3%	5.1%	5.2%	4.6%	6.6%	5.6%	4.7%	4.6%
	June List (jl)	-	-	-	-	-	-	1.1%	1.5%	NA

	Alliance for Sweden (m, c, fp, kd)	47.9%	48.5%	48.0%	51.5%	49.8%	50.1%	50.8%	49.2%	44.0%
	Red-Green bloc (s, v, mp)	49.6%	49.0%	49.0%	46.0%	47.0%	46.9%	47.0%	46.9%	52.9%

^[16]

Debates

2006 Swedish general election debates
Date	Time	Organizers	Moderators	P Present I Invitee N Non-invitee
				S	M	L	KD	V	C	MP	Refs
											Refs
15 september 2006		Sveriges Television	Mats Knutson [sv] Marianne Rundström [sv]	P Göran Persson	P Fredrik Reinfeldt	P Lars Leijonborg	P Göran Hägglund	P Lars Ohly	P Maud Olofsson	P Peter Eriksson	^[17]

Results

The final results were published on 21 September 2006 by the

Swedish Election Authority (Valmyndigheten).^[1] Apart from separating the minor parties, there were no big changes to the preliminary count from the election night. 6,892,009 people were eligible to vote in the election. The results are here compared with the 2002 election. There were 5,551,278 valid ballots cast, a turnout of 82%.^[1]

Cabinet of Göran Persson to stay on as a caretaker government until the Riksdag formally elected a new prime minister. The newly elected Riksdag convened on 2 October and the government was presented on 6 October.^[18]

The election result is historic in being the worst result for the Social Democrats ever in a general election with universal suffrage (introduced in 1921) and the best result for the Moderates since 1928.^[19]

Minor parties, that are not represented in the Riksdag, got a total of 5.7% of the votes, which was an increase of 2.6 percentage points, compared to the 2002 election. Behind this increase lay a great success for the Sweden Democrats, gaining 2.9% (+1.5 percentage points) and thus surpassing the limit (2.5%) for gaining governmental financial support for the next four years. Two new parties, Feminist Initiative (0.7%) and the Pirate Party (0.6%), also contributed to the increase.^[20]

Of the 349 elected Riksdag members, 164 (or 47%) were women.^[21]

Seat distribution

Constituency	Total seats	Seats won
		By party							By coalition
		S	M	C	F	KD	V	MP	Alliance	Red-green

Blekinge	5	3	2						2	3
Dalarna	13	5	3	1	1	1	1	1	6	7
Gävleborg	11	5	2	1	1		1	1	4	7
Gothenburg	18	5	5	1	2	1	2	2	9	9
Gotland	2	1	1						1	1
Halland	10	4	3	1	1	1			6	4
Jämtland	5	3	1	1					2	3
Jönköping	13	5	3	1	1	2	1		7	6
Kalmar	8	4	2	1		1			4	4
Kronoberg	7	3	2	1		1			4	3
Malmö	10	4	3		1		1	1	4	6
Norrbotten	9	6	1	1			1		2	7
Örebro	12	5	2	1	1	1	1	1	5	7
Östergötland	15	6	4	1	1	1	1	1	7	8
Skåne North and East	10	4	3	1	1	1			6	4
Skåne South	13	4	5	1	1	1		1	8	5
Skåne West	10	4	4	1	1				6	4
Södermanland	12	5	2	1	1	1	1	1	5	7
Stockholm County	42	10	17	3	4	3	2	3	27	15
Stockholm Municipality	28	6	11	2	3	1	2	3	17	11
Uppsala	12	4	3	1	1	1	1	1	6	6
Värmland	11	5	2	1	1	1	1		5	6
Västerbotten	11	5	1	1	1	1	1	1	4	7
Västernorrland	11	5	2	1	1	1	1		5	6
Västmanland	9	4	2	1	1		1		4	5
Västra Götaland East	11	4	3	1	1	1	1		6	5
Västra Götaland North	11	4	2	1	1	1	1	1	5	6
Västra Götaland South	7	3	2	1		1			4	3
Västra Götaland West	13	4	4	1	1	1	1	1	7	6
Total	349	130	97	29	28	24	22	19	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.
Votes by municipality as a scale from red/Red-green bloc to blue/Alliance for Sweden.
Cartogram of the vote with each municipality rescaled in proportion to the number of valid votes. Deeper blue represents a relative majority for Alliance for Sweden, brighter red represents a relative majority for the Red-Green bloc.
Map showing the voting shifts from the 2002 to the 2006 election. Darker blue indicates a municipality voted more towards the parties that form Alliance for Sweden. Darker red indicates a municipality voted more towards the parties that form the red-green bloc.

Aftermath

The

1994 election, and Persson had been prime minister since 1996. The Social Democrats before the election had an agreement with the Left Party and the Green Party that gave them an influence on government policy in exchange for their support. However, both the Left Party and the Green Party insisted that any red-green government formed after the election would need to include them in a coalition.^[22]

The four

Alliance for Sweden succeeded in gaining enough seats to form a coalition government. The four parties (formerly in opposition) had presented a joint election manifesto (although c, fp, and kd still had individual manifestos). Their candidate for Prime Minister was the Moderate Party leader, Fredrik Reinfeldt

.

[val-1] 
Valmyndigheten. Archived from the original
on 2021-09-28. Retrieved 2017-06-25.

[2] "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2006-03-25. Retrieved 2006-03-18.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)

[3] "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2006-03-25. Retrieved 2006-03-18.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)

[4] "Statistiska centralbyrån" [Central Bureau of Statistics] (in Swedish). Archived from the original on 2 July 2006.

[5] "Moderaterna" (in Swedish). Archived from the original on Jan 11, 2006.

[6] [1] Archived June 15, 2006, at the Wayback Machine

[7] Moderaternas fejkade arbetslöshetssiffror Archived 2008-03-01 at the Wayback Machine, Peter Eriksson, September 16, 2006

[8] "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2006-03-25. Retrieved 2006-03-18.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)

[9] Centerns ungdomsavtal får inte politiskt stöd Archived 2007-09-26 at the Wayback Machine (in Swedish), Sydsvenskan, 2 April 2006.

[10] Chirac calls for urgent talks after Paris violence, The Guardian, March 18, 2006

[11] Police fire rubber bullets at crowds as Paris labour law protest turns into riot, The Guardian, March 17, 2006

[12] LO: Maud Olofsson bör lära sig av protesterna i Paris Archived 2007-03-08 at the Wayback Machine, Göteborgs-Posten, March 21, 2006

[13] Vi vill hjälpa ungdomar som LO inte vill se Archived 2007-03-09 at the Wayback Machine, Göteborgs-Posten, March 23, 2006

[14] Företagen tror på ungdomsavtal^{[permanent dead link‍]}, Svenskt Näringsliv, March 21, 2006

[15] "Svenskt Näringsliv" (PDF). Svensktnaringsliv.se. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2006-11-08. Retrieved 2017-06-25.

[auto-16] "Väljarbarometern samtliga". Archived from the original on 2006-09-13. Retrieved 2006-09-24.

[17] Valet 2006 - Slutdebatten, retrieved 2024-02-01

[18] Nu ska den nya regeringen bildas Archived 2007-03-08 at the Wayback Machine, Göteborgs-Posten, September 18, 2006

[19] Historisk statistik över valåren 1910 – 2002 Archived 2010-09-14 at the Wayback Machine, Statistics Sweden,

[20] "Allmänna val 17 September 2006". Val.se. Retrieved 2017-06-25.

[21] Mest jämställda någonsin Archived 2007-05-14 at the Wayback Machine, Svenska dagbladet, September 21, 2006

[22] There will be Green ministers Archived 2006-09-25 at the Wayback Machine, The Local, May 22, 2006

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2006 Swedish general election

Campaign

Unemployment

Computer break-in by Liberal People's Party members

Opinion polls

Temo

Sifo

Demoskop

Skop

Ruab

Debates

Results

Seat distribution

By municipality

Aftermath

See also

Further reading

References

External links