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2006 Swedish general election

January 31, 2023

General elections were held in Sweden on 17 September 2006, to elect members to the Riksdag, the Swedish national legislature. All 349 seats were up for election: 310 fixed seats in 29 constituencies and 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 was semi-open list proportional representation using the Sainte-Laguë method of allocating seats. Elections for County and Municipal councils were also held on the same day.

2006 Swedish general election
← 2002 17 September 2006 2010 →
All 349 seats in the Riksdag
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 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%
  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%
  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%

Fredrik Reinfeldt from the Moderate Party was able to form a majority government together with the Centre Party, Liberal People's Party and the Christian Democrats following the election. The 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 campaigning for 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.[2] One year later a similar meeting was held at Bankeryd, home of Göran Hägglund, leader of the Christian Democrats.[3] See 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

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 the Swedish economy (when compared with that 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).[4] They quoted a figure of 1,037,000 (or 17.9% of the labour force in January 2006) for those who are "outside 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 income tax for the lowest paid (by increasing the tax-free allowance), cutting the payroll tax (and abolishing it for parts of the service sector), and making wages paid for household work tax-deductible.[8] Critics of the proposed tax cuts said that, because they are funded by reducing unemployment benefit and 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 contract of employment for those aged under 26, allowing their term of employment to be ended by their employer up to two years after they begin work.[9] This controversial proposal (not adopted by the Alliance as a whole) was intended to increase youth employment by making taking on new employees less risky for the employer, but it was criticised by the red-green parties as reducing job security for the young. A similar contract introduced by the French government (the Contrat première embauche) caused angry demonstrations and riots in France.[10][11] In a debate article in Göteborgs-Posten on 21 March 2006 Wanja Lundby-Wedin, 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

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 Secretary Johan Jakobsson 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]

Results

Main article: Results of the 2006 Swedish general election

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]

 
PartyVotes%Seats+/–
Swedish Social Democratic Party1,942,62534.99130–14
Moderate Party1,456,01426.2397+42
Centre Party437,3897.8829+7
Liberal People's Party418,3957.5428–20
Christian Democrats365,9986.5924–9
Left Party324,7225.8522–8
Green Party291,1215.2419+2
Sweden Democrats162,4632.9300
Feminist Initiative37,9540.680New
Pirate Party34,9180.630New
Swedish Senior Citizen Interest Party28,8060.5200
June List26,0720.470New
Health Care Party11,5190.210New
National Democrats3,0640.0600
Unity2,6480.0500
National Socialist Front1,4170.030New
New Future1,1710.0200
Socialist Justice Party1,0970.0200
People's Will8810.020New
Communist Party4380.0100
Unique Party2220.000New
Classical Liberal Party2020.000New
Alliance Party1330.0000
Women's Power1160.000New
European Workers Party830.0000
Direct Democrats810.000New
Sweden out of the EU / Freedom and Justice Party750.000New
National Democratic Party680.0000
Partiet.se610.000New
September List510.000New
Communist League300.0000
Nordic Union240.000New
Scania Party110.0000
Tax Reformists90.0000
Rikshushållarna80.0000
Miata Party70.000New
New Swedes D.P.N.S.60.0000
Fårgutapartiet60.000New
Palmes Party50.000New
Republicans20.0000
Viking Party10.000New
Other parties1,3650.020–
Total5,551,278100.003490
Valid votes5,551,27898.25
Invalid/blank votes99,1381.75
Total votes5,650,416100.00
Registered voters/turnout6,892,00981.99
Source:

Three hours after the polls closed, the result was clear enough for Moderate Party leader Fredrik Reinfeldt to declare himself the victor and for Göran Persson to announce his resignation as Prime Minister and as leader of the Social Democratic Party. The four centre-right parties of Alliance for Sweden formed, 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 the 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.[17]

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.[18]

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.[19]

Of the 349 elected Riksdag members, 164 (or 47%) were women.[20]

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 minority government of Göran Persson's Social Democratic Party attempted, and failed, to gain enough seats to form a majority government, to continue as a minority or to govern in a red-green coalition government. His party had been in power since 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.[21]

The four centre-right parties – The Moderate Party (m), The Liberal People's Party (fp), The Christian Democrats (kd), and The Centre Party (c) – united in 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.

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 Boxing 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 Boxing 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."[22] 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 article[23] long-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.[24]

See also

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. S2CID 154518751.

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g "Allmänna val 17 september 2006" (in Swedish). Valmyndigheten. Retrieved 2017-06-25.
  2. ^ (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2006-03-25. Retrieved 2006-03-18.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  3. ^ (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2006-03-25. Retrieved 2006-03-18.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  4. ^ [Central Bureau of Statistics] (in Swedish). Archived from the original on 2 July 2006.
  5. ^ (in Swedish). Archived from the original on Jan 11, 2006.
  6. ^ [1] June 15, 2006, at the Wayback Machine
  7. ^ Moderaternas fejkade arbetslöshetssiffror 2008-03-01 at the Wayback Machine, Peter Eriksson, September 16, 2006
  8. ^ (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 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 2007-03-08 at the Wayback Machine, Göteborgs-Posten, March 21, 2006
  13. ^ Vi vill hjälpa ungdomar som LO inte vill se 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. ^ (PDF). Svensktnaringsliv.se. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2006-11-08. Retrieved 2017-06-25.
  16. ^ a b c d e . Archived from the original on 2006-09-13. Retrieved 2006-09-24.
  17. ^ Nu ska den nya regeringen bildas 2007-03-08 at the Wayback Machine, Göteborgs-Posten, September 18, 2006
  18. ^ Historisk statistik över valåren 1910 – 2002 2010-09-14 at the Wayback Machine, Statistics Sweden,
  19. ^ "Allmänna val 17 September 2006". Val.se. Retrieved 2017-06-25.
  20. ^ Mest jämställda någonsin 2007-05-14 at the Wayback Machine, Svenska dagbladet, September 21, 2006
  21. ^ There will be Green ministers 2006-09-25 at the Wayback Machine, The Local, May 22, 2006
  22. ^ "0136: Natural Disasters and National Election (Produktdetaljer) [Uppsala universitetsbibliotek]". acta.mamutweb.com.
  23. ^ Eriksson, Lina M. (2016). "Winds of Change: Voter Blame and Storm Gudrun in the 2006 Swedish Parliamentary Election". Electoral Studies. 41: 129–42. doi:10.1016/j.electstud.2015.12.003.
  24. ^ "Natural Disasters and National Election" (PDF). Uu.diva-portal.org. (PDF) from the original on 2021-03-07. Retrieved 2017-06-25.

External links

 
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January 31, 2023
2006, swedish, general, election, general, elections, were, held, sweden, september, 2006, elect, members, riksdag, swedish, national, legislature, seats, were, election, fixed, seats, constituencies, adjustment, seats, used, ensure, that, parties, have, repre. General elections were held in Sweden on 17 September 2006 to elect members to the Riksdag the Swedish national legislature All 349 seats were up for election 310 fixed seats in 29 constituencies and 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 was semi open list proportional representation using the Sainte Lague method of allocating seats Elections for County and Municipal councils were also held on the same day 2006 Swedish general election 2002 17 September 2006 2010 outgoing memberselected members All 349 seats in the Riksdag175 seats needed for a majority First party Second party Third party Leader Goran Persson Fredrik Reinfeldt Maud OlofssonParty Social Democrats Moderate CentreAlliance The Alliance The AllianceLast election 144 55 22Seats won 130 97 29Seat change 14 42 7Popular vote 1 942 625 1 456 014 437 389Percentage 34 99 26 23 7 88 Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party Leader Lars Leijonborg Goran Hagglund Lars OhlyParty Liberals Christian Democrats LeftAlliance The Alliance The AllianceLast election 48 33 30Seats won 28 24 22Seat change 20 9 8Popular vote 418 395 365 998 324 722Percentage 7 54 6 59 5 85 Seventh party Leader Peter Eriksson Maria WetterstrandParty GreenLast election 17Seats won 19Seat change 2Popular vote 291 121Percentage 5 24 Largest party within each constituency and municipalityDistribution of constituency and levelling seats and largest political bloc within each constituencyPrime Minister before electionGoran PerssonSocial Democrats Elected Prime Minister Fredrik ReinfeldtModerateFredrik Reinfeldt from the Moderate Party was able to form a majority government together with the Centre Party Liberal People s Party and the Christian Democrats following the election The Social Democrats were ousted after twelve years in power It was the country s first majority government since the second Falldin 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 Linkoping Uppsala and Vasteras 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 Contents 1 Campaign 1 1 Unemployment 1 2 Computer break in by Liberal People s Party members 2 Opinion polls 2 1 Temo 2 2 Sifo 2 3 Demoskop 2 4 Skop 2 5 Ruab 3 Results 3 1 Seat distribution 3 2 By municipality 4 Aftermath 5 Analysis 6 See also 7 Further reading 8 References 9 External linksCampaign EditThe campaigning for 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 Hogfors 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 2 One year later a similar meeting was held at Bankeryd home of Goran Hagglund leader of the Christian Democrats 3 See 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 Edit 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 the Swedish economy when compared with that 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 4 They quoted a figure of 1 037 000 or 17 9 of the labour force in January 2006 for those who are outside 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 income tax for the lowest paid by increasing the tax free allowance cutting the payroll tax and abolishing it for parts of the service sector and making wages paid for household work tax deductible 8 Critics of the proposed tax cuts said that because they are funded by reducing unemployment benefit and 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 contract of employment for those aged under 26 allowing their term of employment to be ended by their employer up to two years after they begin work 9 This controversial proposal not adopted by the Alliance as a whole was intended to increase youth employment by making taking on new employees less risky for the employer but it was criticised by the red green parties as reducing job security for the young A similar contract introduced by the French government the Contrat premiere embauche caused angry demonstrations and riots in France 10 11 In a debate article in Goteborgs Posten on 21 March 2006 Wanja Lundby Wedin 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 Naringsliv 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 Edit 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 Secretary Johan Jakobsson voluntarily resigned Leading members of the party and its youth organization are under police investigation suspected for criminal activity Opinion polls EditThe 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 Edit 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 Lastelection 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 Edit Party 7 September 2006 August 2006 August 2006 August 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 Lastelection 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 Edit 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 Lastelection 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 Edit Party August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 Lastelection 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 Edit Party August 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 Lastelection 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 Results EditMain article Results of the 2006 Swedish general election 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 PartyVotes Seats Swedish Social Democratic Party1 942 62534 99130 14Moderate Party1 456 01426 2397 42Centre Party437 3897 8829 7Liberal People s Party418 3957 5428 20Christian Democrats365 9986 5924 9Left Party324 7225 8522 8Green Party291 1215 2419 2Sweden Democrats162 4632 9300Feminist Initiative37 9540 680NewPirate Party34 9180 630NewSwedish Senior Citizen Interest Party28 8060 5200June List26 0720 470NewHealth Care Party11 5190 210NewNational Democrats3 0640 0600Unity2 6480 0500National Socialist Front1 4170 030NewNew Future1 1710 0200Socialist Justice Party1 0970 0200People s Will8810 020NewCommunist Party4380 0100Unique Party2220 000NewClassical Liberal Party2020 000NewAlliance Party1330 0000Women s Power1160 000NewEuropean Workers Party830 0000Direct Democrats810 000NewSweden out of the EU Freedom and Justice Party750 000NewNational Democratic Party680 0000Partiet se610 000NewSeptember List510 000NewCommunist League300 0000Nordic Union240 000NewScania Party110 0000Tax Reformists90 0000Rikshushallarna80 0000Miata Party70 000NewNew Swedes D P N S 60 0000Fargutapartiet60 000NewPalmes Party50 000NewRepublicans20 0000Viking Party10 000NewOther parties1 3650 020 Total5 551 278100 003490Valid votes5 551 27898 25Invalid blank votes99 1381 75Total votes5 650 416100 00Registered voters turnout6 892 00981 99Source Val seThree hours after the polls closed the result was clear enough for Moderate Party leader Fredrik Reinfeldt to declare himself the victor and for Goran Persson to announce his resignation as Prime Minister and as leader of the Social Democratic Party The four centre right parties of Alliance for Sweden formed 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 the Cabinet of Goran 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 17 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 18 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 19 Of the 349 elected Riksdag members 164 or 47 were women 20 Seat distribution Edit Constituency Totalseats Seats wonBy party By coalitionS M C F KD V MP Alliance Red greenBlekinge 5 3 2 2 3Dalarna 13 5 3 1 1 1 1 1 6 7Gavleborg 11 5 2 1 1 1 1 4 7Gothenburg 18 5 5 1 2 1 2 2 9 9Gotland 2 1 1 1 1Halland 10 4 3 1 1 1 6 4Jamtland 5 3 1 1 2 3Jonkoping 13 5 3 1 1 2 1 7 6Kalmar 8 4 2 1 1 4 4Kronoberg 7 3 2 1 1 4 3Malmo 10 4 3 1 1 1 4 6Norrbotten 9 6 1 1 1 2 7Orebro 12 5 2 1 1 1 1 1 5 7Ostergotland 15 6 4 1 1 1 1 1 7 8Skane North and East 10 4 3 1 1 1 6 4Skane South 13 4 5 1 1 1 1 8 5Skane West 10 4 4 1 1 6 4Sodermanland 12 5 2 1 1 1 1 1 5 7Stockholm County 42 10 17 3 4 3 2 3 27 15Stockholm Municipality 28 6 11 2 3 1 2 3 17 11Uppsala 12 4 3 1 1 1 1 1 6 6Varmland 11 5 2 1 1 1 1 5 6Vasterbotten 11 5 1 1 1 1 1 1 4 7Vasternorrland 11 5 2 1 1 1 1 5 6Vastmanland 9 4 2 1 1 1 4 5Vastra Gotaland East 11 4 3 1 1 1 1 6 5Vastra Gotaland North 11 4 2 1 1 1 1 1 5 6Vastra Gotaland South 7 3 2 1 1 4 3Vastra Gotaland West 13 4 4 1 1 1 1 1 7 6Total 349 130 97 29 28 24 22 19 178 171Source Statistics SwedenBy municipality Edit 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 EditThe minority government of Goran Persson s Social Democratic Party attempted and failed to gain enough seats to form a majority government to continue as a minority or to govern in a red green coalition government His party had been in power since 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 21 The four centre right parties The Moderate Party m The Liberal People s Party fp The Christian Democrats kd and The Centre Party c united in 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 Analysis EditThe 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 Boxing 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 Boxing 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 22 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 article 23 long 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 24 See also EditCabinet of Fredrik Reinfeldt List of political parties in SwedenFurther reading EditAylott 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 S2CID 154518751 References Edit a b c d e f g Allmanna val 17 september 2006 in Swedish Valmyndigheten Retrieved 2017 06 25 Archived copy PDF Archived from the original PDF on 2006 03 25 Retrieved 2006 03 18 a href Template Cite web html title Template Cite web cite web a CS1 maint archived copy as title link Archived copy PDF Archived from the original PDF on 2006 03 25 Retrieved 2006 03 18 a href Template Cite web html title Template Cite web cite web a CS1 maint archived copy as title link Statistiska centralbyran Central Bureau of Statistics in Swedish Archived from the original on 2 July 2006 Moderaterna in Swedish Archived from the original on Jan 11 2006 1 Archived June 15 2006 at the Wayback Machine Moderaternas fejkade arbetsloshetssiffror Archived 2008 03 01 at the Wayback Machine Peter Eriksson September 16 2006 Archived copy PDF Archived from the original PDF on 2006 03 25 Retrieved 2006 03 18 a href Template Cite web html title Template Cite web cite web a CS1 maint archived copy as title link Centerns ungdomsavtal far inte politiskt stod Archived 2007 09 26 at the Wayback Machine in Swedish Sydsvenskan 2 April 2006 Chirac calls for urgent talks after Paris violence The Guardian March 18 2006 Police fire rubber bullets at crowds as Paris labour law protest turns into riot The Guardian March 17 2006 LO Maud Olofsson bor lara sig av protesterna i Paris Archived 2007 03 08 at the Wayback Machine Goteborgs Posten March 21 2006 Vi vill hjalpa ungdomar som LO inte vill se Archived 2007 03 09 at the Wayback Machine Goteborgs Posten March 23 2006 Foretagen tror pa ungdomsavtal permanent dead link Svenskt Naringsliv March 21 2006 Svenskt Naringsliv PDF Svensktnaringsliv se Archived from the original PDF on 2006 11 08 Retrieved 2017 06 25 a b c d e Valjarbarometern samtliga Archived from the original on 2006 09 13 Retrieved 2006 09 24 Nu ska den nya regeringen bildas Archived 2007 03 08 at the Wayback Machine Goteborgs Posten September 18 2006 Historisk statistik over valaren 1910 2002 Archived 2010 09 14 at the Wayback Machine Statistics Sweden Allmanna val 17 September 2006 Val se Retrieved 2017 06 25 Mest jamstallda nagonsin Archived 2007 05 14 at the Wayback Machine Svenska dagbladet September 21 2006 There will be Green ministers Archived 2006 09 25 at the Wayback Machine The Local May 22 2006 0136 Natural Disasters and National Election Produktdetaljer Uppsala universitetsbibliotek acta mamutweb com Eriksson Lina M 2016 Winds of Change Voter Blame and Storm Gudrun in the 2006 Swedish Parliamentary Election Electoral Studies 41 129 42 doi 10 1016 j electstud 2015 12 003 Natural Disasters and National Election PDF Uu diva portal org Archived PDF from the original on 2021 03 07 Retrieved 2017 06 25 External links Edit Wikimedia Commons has media related to Swedish general election 2006 Wikinews has related news Opposition alliance wins power in Swedish elections Guide to the Swedish Election 2006 The Local Briefingroom The insider s guide to Swedish politics CNN NSD European Election Database Sweden publishes regional level election data allows for comparisons of election results 1991 2006 Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title 2006 Swedish general election amp oldid 1121462389, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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