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The 2018 Swedish Election of the Riksdag

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The 2018 Swedish Election of the Riksdag The 2018 Swedish Election of the Riksdag POLICY PAPER / NOVEMBER 2018 AUTHORS: EMMA WELSINK LILEESHA BOYD The 2018 Swedish Elections of the Riksdag Policy Paper – Emma Welsink, Lileesha Boyd; November 2018 On Sunday the 9th September 2018 the Social Democrats were able to maintain Swedish voted on the political party that dominance in Sweden as a centre-left they believe should represent them in party, sometimes taking more than 50% of Parliament. Sweden has been a perfect the votes, sometimes going into a coalition example of the Scandinavian model of with leftist parties. Consequentially, the politics for decades, with a focus on social Social Democrats have had a big impact on welfare and progression. But for the first Swedish politics and society. The party is time in history, the 2018 election results especially well known for its establishment left Sweden with an uncertain path of the Swedish welfare system, also called forward as the populist Sweden Democrats ‘Social Democracy’. By implementing this party gained significant ground in expense system, the Social Democrats transformed of the traditionally powerful Social the Swedish health, education and pension Democrats. This paper focuses on the systems. Additionally, they also boosted its question of why Swedish politics have economy, thus providing people with jobs diverted from its established path, and and income. A downside to this impressive what the way forward may look like. welfare system is that during times of economic hardships it is more difficult for The Swedish Political System: the government to curtail (social) expenses Its Political Parties and their and mitigate negative economic Campaign Points developments. The party’s main campaign points were better universal health care, The Swedish system of government is improved pensions, higher employment, classified as a parliamentary democracy. more jobs, improved education and a The Swedish parliament, or Riksdag, strong rule of law. includes the political parties that have managed to surpass a 4% threshold in the The Moderate Party (M) for a long time general elections. Parliament thus played only a small role in the background represents the people. The task of the of Swedish politics. In the first decades parliament is to make decisions, where after its initiation, the party argued for a after the government implements them. In more efficient market economy, lower order to establish the government, the taxes and less government involvement in Riksdag appoints a prime minister (PM) the economy. However, when more and the PM chooses his ministers who will difficult economic times kicked off around lead the ministries. Besides enforcing the the 80s, the Moderates grew and Riksdag decisions, the government also eventually became the second largest party proposes new laws and amendments in the country. The party’s main campaign whose implementation will be decided on points were reduced taxes, less by the parliament. government spending, deregulation and privatization of public services. The Social Democratic Party (SAP) is historically the oldest and biggest political The Sweden Democrats Party (SD) was party in Sweden. It was founded in 1889 as founded in 1988 with its roots in the Neo- a labour party and in 1917 it experienced a Nazi movement. It holds nationalist, anti- schism, where after the leaving members immigration, and anti-EU views. Initially, formed the Left party. For many years the real presence and representation in POLICY PAPER | November 2018 Swedish politics were unattainable due to Christian values to the surface in politics. the questionable backgrounds of many The party’s main campaign points were prominent members of the Sweden better health care for everyone, better care Democrats regarding Nazism, the party’s for the elderly (e.g. pensions), and better extremism, and ties with more flagrantly security for Swedish citizens (e.g. more extremist groups. However, the police on the streets). combination of the charismatic Jimmie Åkesson as its leader and the new social The Liberals (L) were founded in 1934 as climate with the SD’s explicit views on the People’s Party on the basis of equal immigration has benefited the party. They rights for all, specifically voting rights for have significantly increased the party’s both the male and female population. The popularity. The party’s campaign was party’s main issues are better schools and mostly based on anti-immigrant, anti-EU, education, a better integration policy, and nationalist policies. lower taxes, provision of personal assistance to disabled people, and deeper The Centre Party (C) was founded in 1913 EU cooperation and Swedish NATO as the Farmers’ League. It focused on membership. They also support freedom of farmers’ rights and freedoms in a largely choice regarding, for example, schools and industrialized society. Since then the party health care. has built on this view and evolved and expanded its platform into environmental The last party in the Riksdag is the Green issues and decentralization of government Party (MP) whose main concerns are authority. The broadening of the party’s climate and the environment. It has topics of concern also came with a name argued for an increased environmental change to the Centre Party. The party is budget, taxes on air travel, cleaner pro-immigration and pay equality. It transport, and the closing of nuclear currently focuses on the support of small reactors. businesses and entrepreneurs. The party’s The Electoral Campaign 2018 election focus was rural development and power. The 2018 electoral campaign was characterized by anti-immigration The Left Party (V) was founded in 1917 as a sentiments built on the current economic breakaway group of the Social Democrats and cultural tension in Sweden. The in order to take a more left-oriented route. populist Sweden Democrats party focused Since then the party has refocused on on reeling in the working class, which feminism and creating an egalitarian some argue is a part of Swedish society society particularly highlighting women's’ that has been neglected by the previous rights, equality, young people’s rights, and establishment. The welfare state as anti-racism. Traditionally the party has Sweden knows it could not be used as a argued for public ownership rather than main campaign point anymore by the privatization, and against publicly funded Social Democrats, and the SD party was companies making a profit. It is anti-EU aptly able to play into this by underlining membership. rising inequality and increasing law and order concerns while connecting it with The Christian Democrats Party (KD) was the anti-immigration sentiment. formed in 1964 in an effort to bring POLICY PAPER | November 2018 The Election Results After some initial shuffling, the final results appeared as follows: Party Seats Total Seats Riksdag % Gained/Lost Social Democrats -13 100 28.26 New Moderates -14 70 19.84 Swedish +13 62 17.53 Democrats Centre Party +9 31 8.61 Left Party +7 28 8.0 Christian +6 22 6.32 Democrats Liberals +1 20 5.49 Green Party -9 16 4.41 According to these final results, the of the Sweden Democrats. Neither one of Riksdag alliance division looks as such: the established blocs were able to constitute a majority that can form a 1. Left bloc: 40.76% → 144 seats majority government. In this situation, the 2. Centre-right alliance: 39.9% → 143 Sweden Democrats are the decisive factor seats that will majorly impact the coalition- 3. Sweden Democrats: 17.53% → 62 forming process. seats The following visual shows us the final It is clear that the Left bloc and the Centre- results of the general election. It gives a right alliance are approximately tied. Both good overview of the division within the the Social Democrats and the Moderates Riksdag and the respective parties that are lost a significant amount of seats in favor discussed: POLICY PAPER | November 2018 The Social Democrats’ assistance from their government. At the Declining Popularity time, the Social Democratic party had the majority in the Riksdag and thus took the The Social Democrats party is the oldest brunt of the blame. The people stopped and biggest party in Sweden. Since the last trusting them enough to vote them into century, it has consistently received office. anywhere between 35 and 50 percent of the votes in Swedish parliamentary A second issue is that the Social elections. For this reason, the Social Democrats’ welfare system is not enough Democrats established a clear dominance to pull in the voters anymore. The concept in the party system. However, especially of universal health care is no longer seen since the 2000s, the party has experienced as a partisan issue, even though the idea increasing political opposition and originated with the Social Democrats and decreasing support from the population. it has been a strong campaign point ever This can be connected with many internal since. In the public eye, universal and external societal issues. healthcare has shifted from being viewed as a luxury to a given. Due to this, more The Social Democrats, along with many parties have been able to expand from the other center-left political parties, built up same platform and specialize in other their foundation and support from blue- areas. However, the Social Democrats have collar jobs where they defended workers’ not specialized in many other topics. Thus, rights. However, Sweden has been seeing a they have been losing voters to other decline in blue-collar jobs in favor of parties that are bringing more to the table. higher tech or service-oriented ones. As a result, the Social Democrats’ usual voting However, the biggest issue curtailing the base is being depleted. Moreover, many party’s popularity is immigration. The Swedish citizens found themselves leading influx of non-assimilating refugees from difficult lives following the global Middle Eastern and North African regions economic crash of 2008, with little became a point of contention among POLICY PAPER | November 2018 Swedish citizens and gave way to rebranded themselves from their Nazi- nationalist sentiments.
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