2014 Swedish general election

2014 Swedish general election

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All 349 seats in the Riksdag
175 seats needed for a majority
Turnout85.8% (Increase1.2 pp)
  First party Second party Third party
 
Leader Stefan Löfven Fredrik Reinfeldt Jimmie Åkesson
Party Social Democrats Moderate Sweden Democrats
Alliance Red-Greens The Alliance
Last election 30.7%, 112 seats 30.1%, 107 seats 5.7%, 20 seats
Seats won 113 84 49
Seat change Increase1 Decrease23 Increase29
Popular vote 1,932,711 1,453,517 801,178
Percentage 31.0% 23.3% 12.9%
Swing Increase0.3 pp Decrease6.8 pp Increase7.2 pp

  Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party
 
Leader Gustav Fridolin
Åsa Romson
Annie Lööf Jonas Sjöstedt
Party Green Centre Left
Alliance Red-Greens The Alliance Red-Greens
Last election 7.3%, 25 seats 6.6%, 23 seats 5.6%, 19 seats
Seats won 25 22 21
Seat change Steady0 Decrease1 Increase2
Popular vote 429,275 380,937 356,331
Percentage 6.9% 6.1% 5.7%
Swing Decrease0.4 pp Decrease0.5 pp Increase0.1 pp

  Seventh party Eighth party
 
Leader Jan Björklund Göran Hägglund
Party Liberals Christian Democrats
Alliance The Alliance The Alliance
Last election 7.1%, 24 seats 5.6%, 19 seats
Seats won 19 16
Seat change Decrease5 Decrease3
Popular vote 337,773 284,806
Percentage 5.4% 4.6%
Swing Decrease1.7 pp Decrease1.0 pp


Prime Minister before election

Fredrik Reinfeldt
Moderate

Prime Minister after election

Stefan Löfven
Social Democrats

General elections were held in Sweden on 14 September 2014 to elect all 349 seats in the Riksdag, alongside elections for the 21 county councils, and 290 municipal assemblies.

The centre-right Alliance for Sweden coalition (comprising the Moderate Party, Liberal People's Party, Centre Party, and Christian Democrats) sought a third term in government. In contrast to the previous election, the three largest parties on the left (the Social Democrats, Green Party, and Left Party) ran independent campaigns, as did the far-right[1] Sweden Democrats. The left-wing party, Feminist Initiative, did not pass the 4% threshold.

The election result saw the largest three parties on the left outpoll the Alliance for Sweden, with the two blocs respectively winning 159 and 141 seats. The Sweden Democrats doubled their support and won the remaining 49 seats. The party's biggest gain came from gaining about the same number of the vote share as the Moderate Party lost but also made strong inroads into traditionally red municipalities in the central region of Svealand. The Sweden Democrats also became the largest party in two rural municipalities in Scania in the party's southern heartlands.[2][3] Fredrik Reinfeldt, the incumbent prime minister, lost his bid for a third term. On 3 October, he was replaced by Stefan Löfven, who formed a minority government consisting of the Social Democrats and Greens. With the result being a hung parliament, this led to the December Agreement to allow the red-green government to pass its budgets after a government crisis later in the autumn.

The leftist parties became the largest courtesy of the collapse of the Alliance vote share into the Sweden Democrat fold, rather than making any sizeable gains. As a result, very few counties returned other results than hung parliament delegations, even historical Social Democratic strongholds such as Blekinge, Dalarna, Södermanland and Västmanland saw the red-greens failed to secure an outright majority in spite of the election win.[4] The 138 seats for the government (37 short of a majority), made it the cabinet with the lowest seat share in Swedish history to begin a term.

  1. ^ * Downs, William M. (2012), Political Extremism in Democracies: Combating Intolerance, Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 33, 149
  2. ^ "Hörby kommun - Röster - Val 2014" (in Swedish). Valmyndigheten. Retrieved 28 January 2020.
  3. ^ "Sjöbo kommun - Röster - Val 2014" (in Swedish). Valmyndigheten. Retrieved 28 January 2020.
  4. ^ "Röster - Val 2014". Valmyndigheten. Archived from the original on 11 November 2020. Retrieved 28 January 2020.