2006 Swedish general election

2006 Swedish general election

17 September 2006
All 349 seats in theRiksdag 175 seats needed for a majority
First party Second party Third party Leader Göran Persson Fredrik Reinfeldt Maud Olofsson Party Social Democrats Moderate Centre Alliance The Alliance (Sweden) The Alliance Last election 144 55 22 Seats won 130 97 29 Seat change 14 42 7 Popular vote 1,942,625 1,456,014 437,389 Percentage 34.99% 26.23% 7.88% Swing 4.86pp 10.97pp 1.69pp Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party Leader Lars Leijonborg Göran Hägglund Lars Ohly Party Liberals Christian Democrats Left Alliance The Alliance The Alliance Last election 48 33 30 Seats won 28 24 22 Seat change 20 9 8 Popular vote 418,395 365,998 324,722 Percentage 7.54% 6.59% 5.85% Swing 5.85pp 2.56pp 2.54pp Seventh party Leader Peter Eriksson Maria Wetterstrand Party Green Last election 17 Seats won 19 Seat change 2 Popular vote 291,121 Percentage 5.24% Swing 0.59pp
Prime Ministerbefore election Göran Persson Social Democrats ElectedPrime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt Moderate

General elections were held inSwedenon 17 September 2006, to elect members to theRiksdag,the Swedish national legislature. All 349 seats were up for election: 310 fixed seats in 29constituenciesand 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 wassemi-open listproportional representationusing theSainte-Laguë methodof allocating seats. Elections forCountyandMunicipalcouncils were also held on the same day.

Fredrik Reinfeldtfrom theModerate Partywas able to form a majority government together with theCentre Party,Liberal People's Partyand theChristian Democratsfollowing the election. TheSocial Democratswere 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 inStockholm Countyflipped.This, combined with a landslide overall win in the capital region as a whole and strong showings inScaniatipped the balance in favour of the Alliance. The centre-right bloc also flipped the crucial populous municipalitiesGothenburg,Linköping,UppsalaandVästerås.

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 the1991hung parliamentloss, the coalition fell short of a majority by seven seats, or two percentage points of the popular vote.

The Alliance did not reach 50% of the vote, courtesy of several minor parties gathering up 5.67% of the overall vote.This was the final election before theSweden Democratsentered 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% inBjuv Municipalityin its Scanian heartlands and above the parliamentary threshold in the country's five southernmost constituencies.

Campaign

Thecampaigningfor the 2006 election began early, as the opposition decided to present itself as a viable alternative government by forming an alliance: Alliance for Sweden. This alliance was negotiated at a meeting held in the village of Högfors, home to the chairman of the Centre Party, Maud Olofsson. The meeting ended on 31 August 2004 with the presentation of a joint declaration outlining the principles under which the four parties intended to run in the election.One year later a similar meeting was held at Bankeryd, home of Göran Hägglund, leader of the Christian Democrats.SeeAlliance for Swedenfor 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

See also:Economy of Sweden

The Social Democrat government's perceived failure to reduce unemployment was a major issue in the campaign, especially considering the good performance of theSwedish economy(when compared withthat of the rest of Europe). The opposition also argued that "real" unemployment was much higher than the official figure of 4.8% (as of May 2006).They quoted a figure of 1,037,000 (or 17.9% of thelabour forcein January 2006) for those who are "outside thelabour marketbecause they do not have a job or are studying ".If those who are "wholly or partially outside the labour market" are included then the figure rises to 1,700,000.This gloomy view of the unemployment situation was raised by Jan Edling, a former economist for theSwedish Trade Union Confederation(LO). However, compared with other OECD countries Sweden has a low "broad unemployment", as was pointed out by the Green Party'sPeter Erikssonin the debate.

Alliance for Sweden proposed to address the problem by cuttingincome taxfor the lowest paid (by increasing the tax-free allowance), cutting thepayroll tax(and abolishing it for parts of theservice sector), and making wages paid forhousehold worktax-deductible.Critics of the proposed tax cuts said that, because they are funded by reducingunemployment benefitandsick 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 youthcontract of employmentfor those aged under 26, allowing their term of employment to be ended by their employer up to two years after they begin work.Thiscontroversialproposal (not adopted by the Alliance as a whole) was intended to increase youth employment by making taking on new employees lessriskyfor the employer, but it was criticised by thered-greenparties as reducingjob securityfor the young. A similar contract introduced by theFrench government(theContrat première embauche) caused angrydemonstrationsandriotsinFrance.In a debate article inGöteborgs-Postenon 21 March 2006Wanja Lundby-Wedin,ChairpersonofLO,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 runlocum' 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? ".

Olofsson replied two days later in the same newspaper:

"WhatLO'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 ".

A survey carried out by theConfederation 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.

Computer break-in by Liberal People's Party members

Main article:2006 Swedish general election computer infringement affair

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 SecretaryJohan Jakobssonvoluntarily 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

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

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%

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%

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%

Debates

2006 Swedish general election debates
Date	Time	Organizers	Moderators	PPresentIInviteeNNon-invitee
				S	M	L	KD	V	C	MP	Refs
15 september 2006		Sveriges Television		P Göran Persson	P Fredrik Reinfeldt	P Lars Leijonborg	P Göran Hägglund	P Lars Ohly	P Maud Olofsson	P Peter Eriksson

Results

Main article:Results of the 2006 Swedish general election

The final results were published on 21 September 2006 by theSwedish Election Authority(Valmyndigheten).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 withthe 2002 election.There were 5,551,278 valid ballots cast, a turnout of 82%.

Party		Votes	%	Seats	+/–
	Swedish Social Democratic Party	1,942,625	34.99	130	–14
	Moderate Party	1,456,014	26.23	97	+42
	Centre Party	437,389	7.88	29	+7
	Liberal People's Party	418,395	7.54	28	–20
	Christian Democrats	365,998	6.59	24	–9
	Left Party	324,722	5.85	22	–8
	Green Party	291,121	5.24	19	+2
	Sweden Democrats	162,463	2.93	0	0
	Feminist Initiative	37,954	0.68	0	New
	Pirate Party	34,918	0.63	0	New
	Swedish Senior Citizen Interest Party	28,806	0.52	0	0
	June List	26,072	0.47	0	New
	Health Care Party	11,519	0.21	0	New
	National Democrats	3,064	0.06	0	0
	Unity	2,648	0.05	0	0
	National Socialist Front	1,417	0.03	0	New
	New Future	1,171	0.02	0	0
	Socialist Justice Party	1,097	0.02	0	0
	People's Will	881	0.02	0	New
	Communist Party	438	0.01	0	0
	Unique Party	222	0.00	0	New
	Classical Liberal Party	202	0.00	0	New
	Alliance Party	133	0.00	0	0
	Women's Power	116	0.00	0	New
	European Workers Party	83	0.00	0	0
	Direct Democrats	81	0.00	0	New
	Sweden out of the EU / Freedom and Justice Party	75	0.00	0	New
	National Democratic Party	68	0.00	0	0
	Partiet.se	61	0.00	0	New
	September List	51	0.00	0	New
	Communist League	30	0.00	0	0
	Nordic Union	24	0.00	0	New
	Scania Party	11	0.00	0	0
	Tax Reformists	9	0.00	0	0
	Rikshushållarna	8	0.00	0	0
	Miata Party	7	0.00	0	New
	New Swedes D.P.N.S.	6	0.00	0	0
	Fårgutapartiet	6	0.00	0	New
	Palmes Party	5	0.00	0	New
	Republicans	2	0.00	0	0
	Viking Party	1	0.00	0	New
	Write-in votes	1,365	0.02	0	–
Total		5,551,278	100.00	349	0
Valid votes		5,551,278	98.25
Invalid/blank votes		99,138	1.75
Total votes		5,650,416	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		6,892,009	81.99
Source:Val.se

Three hours after the polls closed, the result was clear enough forModerate PartyleaderFredrik Reinfeldtto declare himself the victor and forGöran Perssonto announce his resignation asPrime Ministerand as leader of theSocial Democratic Party.The fourcentre-rightparties ofAlliance for Swedenformed, as expected, a government with Fredrik Reinfeldt as Prime Minister. The Speaker had asked Reinfeldt to begin this formation on 19 September but, as is usual, requested theCabinet of Göran Perssonto stay on as acaretaker governmentuntil the Riksdag formally elected a new prime minister. The newly electedRiksdagconvened on 2 October and the government was presented on 6 October.

The election result is historic in being the worst result for the Social Democrats ever in a general election withuniversal suffrage(introduced in 1921) and the best result for the Moderates since 1928.

Minor parties, that are not represented in the Riksdag, got a total of 5.7% of the votes, which was an increase of 2.6percentage points,compared to the2002 election.Behind this increase lay a great success for theSweden 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 thePirate Party(0.6%), also contributed to the increase.

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

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 voteswithinthe coalition that won relative majority.
• 
  Votes by municipality as a scale from red/Red-green bloc to blue/Alliance for Sweden.
• 
  Cartogramof 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

Theminority governmentofGöran Persson'sSocial Democratic Partyattempted, and failed, to gain enough seats to form amajority government,to continue as a minority or to govern in ared-greencoalition government.His party had been in power since the1994 election,and Persson had beenPrime Ministersince 1996. The Social Democrats before the election had an agreement with theLeft Partyand theGreen Partythat 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.

The fourcentre-rightparties – The Moderate Party (m), The Liberal People's Party (fp), The Christian Democrats (kd), and The Centre Party (c) – united inAlliance for Swedensucceeded in gaining enough seats to form acoalition government.The four parties (formerly in opposition) had presented a joint election manifesto (although c, fp, and kd still had individual manifestos). Theircandidatefor Prime Minister was theModerate Partyleader,Fredrik Reinfeldt.

Analysis

The regime shift that occurred in the 2006 election, however, can be traced to changes in popularity between the party - blocs prior to the campaign really started and to the timing of two extreme natural disasters that combined had a dramatic impact on the Swedish political landscape. In a dissertation from the Department of Government at Uppsala University, entitled "Natural Disasters and National Election", PhD Lina M. Eriksson found in her research that the Indian Ocean’s 2004 Bo xing Day Tsunami and 2005 Storm Gudrun (Erwin), which struck only two weeks following the tsunami, impacted on the 2006 historic regime shift that occurred in the 2006 Swedish parliamentary election. The results from this research show that the 2002-2006 incumbent Social Democratic Party's (S) poor crisis response to Gudrun, which is the hitherto most costly natural disaster in Swedish history, alone has an estimated effect of a magnitude that likely was crucial to the 2006 historic regime shift. In the abstract to the thesis one can read "The 2002-2006 incumbent Social Democratic Party (S) received its lowest voter support since 1914 as roughly 150,000, or 8%, of the 2002 S voters went to the main opposition, the conservative Moderate Party (M). This became the most decisive factor in ousting S from power after 12 years of rule. As a result, the M-led Alliance (A) with the People's Party (FP), the Center Party (C), and the Christian Democrats (KD) won the election. Natural Disasters and National Election makes the novel contribution of proposing two natural disasters, the Indian Ocean’s 2004 Bo xing Day Tsunami and 2005 Storm Gudrun (Erwin), which struck only two weeks following the tsunami, as major events that impacted government popularity in the 2006 election and contributed to the redistribution of voter support, within and across party-blocs. The core findings from this thesis show that the S government’s poor crisis response to Gudrun, which is the hitherto most costly natural disaster in Swedish history, alone has an estimated effect of a magnitude that likely contributed to the 2006 historic regime shift, while the tsunami also seems to have mattered. The tsunami is particularly interesting, as S’s poor international crisis response to the event constitutes the first natural disaster situation to knowingly have affected an election on the other side of the planet. Moreover, to some degree voters recognized the active opposition by C as effective representation and rewarded the party for its strong stance on the poor handling of both events by S. In fact, the active voice of C concerning these disasters likely helped move the party from the periphery of party politics to becoming the third-largest party in Swedish politics. In sum, this research investigates accountability and effective party representation via retrospective voting, which is an essential mechanism for the legitimacy of democracy. Findings suggest that the average Swedish voter indeed may be voting retrospectively to hold publicly elected officials accountable, which suggest a healthy status of the retrospective voting mechanism and Swedish democracy."Part of the dissertation has also been published in Electoral Studies, which is to be considered the leading scientific journal in election research. In the articlelong-term effects are also found over the 2010 and 2014 election, which implies that the Storm triggered long-lasting changes in voter support from the left to the right side of the political spectrum. A comprehensive summary of the dissertation is available for download via Uppsala University.

See also

• Cabinet of Fredrik Reinfeldt
• List of political parties in Sweden

Further reading

• Aylott, Nicholas; Niklas Bolin (May 2007). "Towards a two-party system? The Swedish parliamentary election of September 2006".West European Politics.30(3): 621–633.doi:10.1080/01402380701276477.S2CID154518751.

External links

• Guide to the Swedish Election 2006–The Local
• Briefingroom: The insider's guide to... Swedish politics–CNN
• NSD: European Election Database – SwedenArchived2010-08-11 at theWayback Machinepublishes regional level election data; allows for comparisons of election results, 1991–2006