1991 Swedish general election

1991 Swedish general election

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All 349 seats in the Riksdag
175 seats needed for a majority
  First party Second party Third party
 
Leader Ingvar Carlsson Carl Bildt Bengt Westerberg
Party Social Democrats Moderate Liberal People's
Last election 156 66 44
Seats won 138 80 33
Seat change Decrease18 Increase14 Decrease11
Popular vote 2,062,761 1,199,394 499,356
Percentage 37.71% 21.92% 9.13%
Swing Decrease5.50pp Increase3.62pp Decrease3.07pp

  Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party
 
Leader Olof Johansson Alf Svensson Ian Wachtmeister
Bert Karlsson
Party Centre Christian Democrats New Democracy
Last election 42 0
Seats won 31 26 25
Seat change Decrease11 Increase26 New
Popular vote 465,175 390,351 368,281
Percentage 8.50% 7.14% 6.73%
Swing Decrease2.80pp Increase4.20pp New

  Seventh party
 
Leader Lars Werner
Party Left
Last election 21
Seats won 16
Seat change Decrease5
Popular vote 246,905
Percentage 4.51%
Swing Decrease1.33pp

Map of the election, showing the distribution of constituency and levelling seats, as well as the largest political bloc within each constituency.

Prime Minister before election

Ingvar Carlsson
Social Democrats

Elected Prime Minister

Carl Bildt
Moderate

General elections were held in Sweden on 15 September 1991.[1] The Swedish Social Democratic Party remained the largest party in the Riksdag, winning 138 of the 349 seats.[2] However, it was the party's worst showing since 1928 with 37.7% of the vote.[3]

The election was notable due to the rise of a new right-wing populist party named New Democracy which succeeded in securing a parliamentary mandate for the first (and only) time. The four parties of the centre-right coalition (the Centre Party, People's Party, Moderates, and Christian Democrats) were allocated a combined total of 171 seats, 17 more than the two left-wing parties' 154, but still fewer than the 175 necessary for a majority. Thus the centre-right bloc was dependent upon New Democracy to secure a parliamentary majority. It was able to do so, and the Moderates' Carl Bildt became Prime Minister.

One large factor in the shift between the blocs was that the Christian Democrats managed to reach the 4% threshold by a good margin after many previous attempts. This combined with the Green Party falling short of the threshold, meant vast changes to areas yielding wins for the blue bloc. Norrköping, Västerås and Örebro, main urban areas inside the left-wing industrial belt of central Sweden, all voted blue for the first time for generations.[3] Even so, they did only assemble pluralities as opposed to majorities in all three. The centre-right bloc also made vast gains in the capital region, the Moderate Party being the largest both in Stockholm Municipality and the surrounding Stockholm County. Led by the strong Moderate vote, Malmö also flipped to a blue plurality, overturning another historical Social Democrat stronghold.

  1. ^ Dieter Nohlen & Philip Stöver (2010) Elections in Europe: A data handbook, p1858 ISBN 978-3-8329-5609-7
  2. ^ Nohlen & Stöver, p1873
  3. ^ a b "Allmänna valen 1991. Del 1, Riksdagsvalet den 15 september 1991" (PDF) (in Swedish). Statistical Central Bureau. Retrieved 18 November 2019.