Swedish general election, 2010

• V: 19
• S: 112
• MP: 25
• C: 23
• FP: 24
• KD: 19
• M: 107
• SD: 20

The election to the Swedish Parliament in 2010 took place on 19 September 2010.

Good 7 million Swedes were invited to cast their vote.

Appointments, legislative period, electoral system

The election date was followed by the Swedish tradition whereby Reichstag elections are held on the third Sunday in September. Called for the election were 7,123,082 citizens, namely all Swedes, who had reached the age of 18 at the latest on election day. It had been expected at the polls 504 419 first-time voters. As of September 1, 2010 were allowed citizens in Sweden, who were prevented on election day, choose in advance; already from August 26 Swedish citizens abroad had the opportunity in 2010 to vote. 2178425 people took advantage of these opportunities - an increase of 384 750 persons compared to the elections of 2006.

Were elected for a term of four years, 349 members of the Swedish Reichstag. The Swedish electoral system based on the principle of proportional representation. The country is divided into 29 constituencies ( valkretsar ), which correspond to the 21 Swedish Län ( provinces ) substantially. However Stockholm County is divided into five constituencies in two constituencies, Skåne län in Västra Götaland County and four.

The 349 seats of Parliament are made up of 310 so-called fixed mandates ( fasta mandate ) and 39 compensatory mandates ( utjämningsmandat ). No later than 30 April of the election year, the Election Commission shall determine in each case, be the number of mandates allocated to the individual constituencies. Due to a restrictive clause one party receives only mandates if they receive at least four percent of the vote in the kingdom, or at least 12 percent of the vote in one of the constituencies. Since 1998, voters have the option of preferential votes to be awarded for a particular candidate elected party. For the application reaches a so-called "modified " version of the Sainte- Laguë seat allocation process.

Simultaneously with the parliamentary elections and the elections to the county council and municipal council elections were held.

Starting position

2006 election

The Swedish post-war history was largely by Sveriges socialdemokratiska arbetareparti ( Socialist Workers Party) helped to shape, however, only rarely ruled with absolute majorities comfortable. Often, the Social Democrats represented a minority government, which made ​​a pact with decisions in the Reichstag with various other parties, even from the bourgeois camp. At the same time the bourgeois parties were rarely as a unit and were partly in a mutual competitive relationship. These peculiarities of the Swedish policies worked against long a rigid block formation. Bundling the bourgeois forces was only achieved in August 2004 with the founding of the Alliance for Sweden. The alliance has until today to the four parties Moderata samlingspartiet ( Conservative ), Centerpartiet ( Centre Party ), Folkpartiet liberal erna (Liberal People's Party) and Kristdemokraterna (Christian ).

Although the Social Democrats once again emerged from the general election in 2006 as the strongest force, the Alliance for Sweden won an absolute majority of votes. Sweden was thus for the first time since 1994 a bourgeois government. The Alliance moved with 178 deputies in the Reichstag, while the Social Democrats and the parties supporting it, the Vänsterpartiet ( Left Party ) and the Miljöpartiet de Gröna ( Green ), reached a total of 171 seats. For new Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt was elected by the Conservatives on 5 October 2006.

Statements before the election

The election campaign in Sweden was dominated by the rival blocks, the Alliance for Sweden and the opposition coalition led by the Social Democrats, the red-green. Both groups announced their joint election manifestos, which were not published until a few weeks before the election.

Alliance for Sweden

However, the Alliance presented in May 2010, a less concrete aggregate election platform, which outlined the long-term strategies of the four parties. An important goal they set out to establish a business-friendly climate, are to benefit from the particular small and medium-sized businesses. With the consolidation of public finances, especially the discharge of the municipalities was sought. You should also ensure certain " core functions " of the welfare state as efficient medical services, improved geriatric care, a good school and kindergarten offering. In addition, the alliance made ​​up his mind to develop its energy policy so that Sweden could play " a world- leading role in the climate work ". In the election manifesto of August 26, 2010, this objective has been clarified to, among other things, that emissions of carbon dioxide will be reduced in 2020 to 40 percent without appropriate environmental taxes are increased.

Further concrete measures suggested the alliance included the sale of the government stake in the company Nordea and TeliaSonera and at the housing association SBAB. Using a newly established sovereign wealth fund investments in depressed areas of Norrland should be made possible. The parties also agreed on introducing school grades that existed until 2010 until the eighth grade already in sixth grade. Employees were given the opportunity to work up to the age of 69 (instead of previously up to the age of 67 ). Other plans called for an increase in the tax on alcohol and tobacco by 13 and 8 percent respectively.

In a number of individual issues also conflicts between the parties came to light. The Christian Democrats insisted first on a doubling of the child-raising allowance for parents who brought their children aged one to three years at home cared ( and therefore did not send in the kindergartens ). However, the Allies refused to accept those family policy. In a compromise formulation of the election manifesto, the partners agreed on, to shorten the time parents. The Conservative plans opposed an immediate reduction of income tax, which raised the other three parties to the program. The Center Party, which has, particularly in the agricultural areas over a larger following, pledged that the tax will not be reintroduced on artificial fertilizers, while the Liberal People's Party called for exactly that for ecological reasons. Only the Christian Democrats sat committed to provide the membership in racist organizations under prosecution, the other parties appealed to the constitutional guarantee of freedom of association. The Conservatives and the Liberal People's Party advocated a Sweden's entry into NATO, which was out of the question for the other parties, with reference to the traditional Swedish policy of neutrality. In addition, the parties differed in individual priorities differ. Given an unemployment rate of about 9 percent and a relatively high youth unemployment put the " job question ", ie the revival of the market, for Prime Minister Reinfeldt the most pressing concern represents the Liberal People's Party, however, conceded education issues a priority.

The red-green

Until the general election in September 2006, the Social Democrats had governed with the support of the Left Party and the Greens, without the parties had entered into a formal coalition. After the election of Mona Sahlin as new Chairperson of the Social Democrats in March 2007, the cooperation between the three parties increased. In the fall of 2008, she entered into a covenant with the aim to provide a coalition government in Sweden after the general election of 2010. De Rödgröna ( The red-green ) formed on various topics first five, later seven working groups, should develop the announced joint election manifesto. In addition, the individual parties published their own choice programs.

There was a consensus in the red-green camp is that the unemployment was the greatest challenge for policy makers. To get young people in particular from the road, 44,000 new training places should be created. Companies that were willing to hire young people, tax breaks and subsidies were promised. Also, the ecological transformation of society promised the Alliance 's view, to generate jobs.

Many of the measures that had decided the alliance after its election victory in 2006, the Red-Green wanted to take back. Among other things, the reduction of employers' duties should be revised. At the same time, the parties intended to reintroduce the abolished wealth tax. The plan was also that owners of houses with a value of at least 4.5 million Swedish kronor (about 475,000 euros ), a higher property tax had to be paid. These and other measures guaranteed the Alliance 's view, a greater degree of equality ( jämlikhet ), strongly advocated by the Social Democrats and left-wing parties in Sweden traditionally. In energy policy issues decided the red-green, to stop the building of new nuclear power plants, which the Reichstag with the votes of the governing parties had agreed in June 2010 after an election victory. They also promised to provide back for free admission to all state museums - originally a social democratic initiative, which was launched in 2006 by the Alliance to case.

A central concern of the red-green was the defense and advancement of the welfare state. The alliance announced more for health care and schools spend 12 billion kronor (about 1.27 billion euros ) than the Alliance. In the nurseries and kindergartens an educator should have to serve a maximum of five children. Single parents parents secured the red-green better support, including in the form of higher housing allowance, too. Also in the transport policy put the blocks different accents. While the alliance a number of road projects, including the Greater Stockholm priori formatted, the red-green for road user charges in the capital and a truck tolls put an. By the year 2021 100 billion crowns should be invested in the expansion of the rail network, including high-speed lines between Stockholm and Linköping and Gothenburg and Borås.

There were differences on important issues within the red-green camp. The Left Party was considering to finance promised tax relief for pensioners by a higher income tax. These plans were met with Social Democrats and Greens to rejection. A further immigration of skilled workers from countries outside the European Union, was the Greens more than welcomed by the Allies.

Surveys

After the elections in the fall of 2006, the Civil Alliance initially fell sharply on consent. Beginning of 2008, calculated opinion research institutes such as Novus Opinion, Sifo or Temo peak values ​​for the red and green in the range of 58 percent of the vote. The projection on the alliance was at times more than 20 percentage points. After that, the bourgeois parties improved their poll numbers gradually, but in January 2010, the opposition voters favor significantly.

A turnaround went in May or June 2010 noticeable when the alliance again topped the popularity scale for the first time. By the end of August, the government parties had extended their lead to around four percent. Nevertheless, the pollsters said until the election of 19 September 2010 ahead of a head-to -head race between the two blocks. Fully open was a few weeks before the election and which party would move as the strongest force in parliament. Novus Opinion saw the Moderata samlingspartiet on 25 August 2010 at 31.4 percent and the Social Democrats almost level with 30.3 percent of the vote. In a direct comparison of the top candidates declared 63 percent of Swedes that they would trust Prime Minister Reinfeldt, while Mona Sahlin had the confidence of 18 percent of their compatriots - a comparatively low value, which many citizens led back to the so-called Toblerone affair, which focuses on In 1995, Sahlin.

In addition to the seven parties that were already represented in the Reichstag, the pollsters dared only the right-wing populist and xenophobic grouping Sverigedemokraterna to (Sweden Democrats ) to win seats in the new parliament. In the polls, the party end of August 2010 was slightly above the 4 percent threshold. All parties in the Reichstag refused, however, before the election from a parliamentary cooperation with the Sweden Democrats. Little chance of a catchment in the Reichstag of the Feministiskt initiative ( Feminist Initiative) and the Piratpartiet ( Pirate Party ) were granted.

Election result

On the morning of September 20, 2010 it was clear that the US-led Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt alliance had won the election for Sweden. The bourgeois alliance increased its share of the vote since the last election by 1.1 percent to 49.3 percent. Despite this accrued gains the alliance missed the absolute majority for the first time since moved in the Sweden Democrats in the Reichstag. The right-wing populist party fared better than expected and achieved with 5.7 percent of the vote, 20 seats.

The red-green reached 43.6 percent of the vote, which meant a loss of 2.5 percentage points compared to the 2006 election. The decline especially the Social Democrats were in charge, although again the largest party in Sweden were 30.7 percent of the vote, but achieved its worst result since 1914. The Left Party lost easily, while the Greens increased by two percentage points and moved in as the third largest party in the Reichstag.

All other parties missed the 4 percent threshold significantly. The turnout was 84.6 percent.

157 of the 349 elected MPs are women, whose share is 45 percent, making it slightly decreased in proportion to the Reichstag election of 2006. Responsible for this trend stand above all the Sweden Democrats, whose fraction is only about 15 percent of women. 118 deputies moved into the Swedish parliament for the first time.

Since both blocks had refused to cooperate with the Sweden Democrats, the government and majority formation after the election was initially unclear. Even on election night made ​​Prime Minister Reinfeldt the Greens offering a collaboration, which dismissed Party spokeswoman Maria beach weather. On 27 September 2010 the Greens announced that the party could imagine a collaboration with the ruling alliance particular issues such as asylum and immigration policy, to exclude influence of the Sweden Democrats on these issues. However, a formal accession to the alliance, they refused.

October 5, 2010 Fredrik Reinfeldt presented his new cabinet, which now officiates as a minority government. Each four ministers are members of the Liberal People's Party and the Centre Party, the Christian Democrats three and twelve the Conservatives.

The election results are as follows: