2002 Swedish general election

2002 Swedish general election

← 1998 15 September 2002 2006 →

All 349 seats in the Riksdag
175 seats needed for a majority
  First party Second party Third party
 
Leader Göran Persson Bo Lundgren Lars Leijonborg
Party Social Democrats Moderate Liberals
Alliance Centre-left Centre-right Centre-right
Last election 131 seats 82 seats 17 seats
Seats won 144 55 48
Seat change Increase13 Decrease27 Increase31
Popular vote 2,113,560 809,041 710,312
Percentage 39.9% 15.3% 13.4%
Swing Increase3.5pp Decrease7.6pp Increase8.7pp

  Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party
 
Leader Alf Svensson Gudrun Schyman Maud Olofsson
Party Christian Democrats Left Centre
Alliance Centre-right Centre-left Centre-right
Last election 42 seats 43 seats 18 seats
Seats won 33 30 22
Seat change Decrease9 Decrease13 Increase4
Popular vote 485,235 444,854 328,428
Percentage 9.2% 8.4% 6.2%
Swing Decrease2.6pp Decrease3.6pp Increase1.1pp

  Seventh party
 
Leader Peter Eriksson
Maria Wetterstrand
Party Green
Alliance Centre-left
Last election 16 seats
Seats won 17
Seat change Increase1
Popular vote 246,392
Percentage 4.7%
Swing Increase0.2pp


PM before election

Göran Persson
Social Democrats

Elected PM

Göran Persson
Social Democrats

General elections were held in Sweden on 15 September 2002,[1] alongside municipal and county council elections. The Swedish Social Democratic Party remained the largest party in the Riksdag, winning 144 of the 349 seats.[2]

After securing a confidence and supply agreement with the Left Party and the Green Party, Prime Minister Göran Persson was able to remain in his position for a third consecutive term as a minority government.

Although the bloc compositions were similar to 1998, the complexions of the centre-right bloc shifted radically. Under new party leader Bo Lundgren, the Moderates lost more than seven percentage points and barely held on as the largest party in its coalition. Only eight municipalities in all of Sweden had the Moderates as the largest party, six of which were in the Stockholm area.[3] The Peoples' Party led by Lars Leijonborg, instead more than doubled its parliamentary delegation and received above 13% of the vote. Lundgren resigned in the wake of the election, leading to the selection of future Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt as the Moderate leader.

Among the four other Riksdag parties, the Christian Democrats and the Left Party both lost ground, whereas the Centre and Green parties managed to reach the parliamentary threshold of four percentage points.

Among minor parties, the Norrbotten Party reached 9.4% of the vote in its county, polling above 20% in some inland areas. However, this was not enough to gain a Riksdag seat.[3] The Sweden Democrats became the eight largest party for the first time, making sizeable gains and winning more council seats than ever before.

  1. ^ Nohlen, D & Stöver, P (2010) Elections in Europe: A data handbook, p1858 ISBN 978-3-8329-5609-7
  2. ^ Nohlen & Stöver, p1873
  3. ^ a b "Sverige - Valområde - 2002-09-27 09:16:45" (in Swedish). Valmyndigheten. 27 September 2002. Archived from the original on 7 September 2021. Retrieved 19 November 2019.