1985 Swedish general election

General elections were held in Sweden on 15 September 1985.[1] The Swedish Social Democratic Party remained the largest party in the Riksdag, winning 159 of the 349 seats.[2] Its leader, Olof Palme, kept his position as Prime Minister. He would retain this position successfully until his assassination in 1986.

1985 Swedish general election

15 September 1985
All 349 seats to the Riksdag 175 seats were needed for a majority
Leader Olof Palme Ulf Adelsohn Bengt Westerberg Party Social Democratic Moderate People's Last election 166 86 21 Seats won 159 76 51 Seat change 7 10 30 Popular vote 2,487,551 1,187,335 792,268 Percentage 44.7% 21.3% 14.2% Swing 0.9% 2.3% 8.3%   Leader Thorbjörn Fälldin Lars Werner Alf Svensson Party Centre Left-Communist Christian Democrats Last election 56 20 0 Seats won 43 19 1 Seat change 13 1 1 Popular vote 490,570 298 419 200,688 Percentage 8.8% 5.4% 3.6% Swing 6.7% 0.2% 0.8%
PM before election Olof Palme Social Democratic Elected PM Olof Palme Social Democratic

Campaign

At a campaign meeting in Sundsvall on 22 August, Minister of Social Welfare Sten Andersson promised to increase the state pensions as a compensation for the price increases following the devaluation of the krona in 1982. The Social Democrat (Socialdemokraterna) government also stressed that it had managed to decrease the budget deficit from 90 billion to 60 billion kronas. The Social Democrats also promised not to increase taxes or lower the quality of the welfare system.

The Centre Party had a technical cooperation with the Christian Democrats. The Christian Democrats always received fewer votes than the 4% threshold for gaining seats to the Riksdag. The cooperation was criticized within the Centre Party. The aim was for both parties to gain votes, but in the end the Centre Party's share of the votes decreased in comparison to the previous election in 1982. The Christian Democrats only gained one seat in parliament for its leader, Alf Svensson.

The political debate was dominated by the Moderate Party and the Social Democrats. In January 1985, the Moderate Party had proposed in parliament a detailed plan with tax cuts and cuts in spending. The Social Democrats' leader Olof Palme managed to turn this against the Moderate Party by repeating the negative effects this would have on junior soccer teams. The Moderate Party was supported by 30 percent in an opinion poll by SIFO in June 1985, but its support decreased during the campaign.

The Liberal People's Party had chosen Bengt Westerberg as its party leader in October 1983; he had had trouble getting his message through, not least because of the party's small size in parliament and its only receiving 5.9 percent support in the 1982 election. However, in August Westerberg became viewed by the public as a calm and honest politician, in comparison to the constantly arguing Adelsohn and Palme. The Liberal People's Party was the big winner of the 1985 election, increasing its support to 14.2 percent.

Results

Party	Votes	%	Seats	+/–
Swedish Social Democratic Party	2,487,551	44.7	159	–7
Moderate Party	1,187,335	21.3	76	–10
People's Party	792,268	14.2	51	+30
Centre Party^[a]	490,999	8.8	43	–13
Left Party Communists	298,419	5.4	19	–1
Christian Democratic Unity^[a]	131,548	2.4	0	0
Green Party	83,645	1.5	0	0
Centre^[a]	73,711	1.3	1	–
Other parties	21,546	0.4	0	0
Invalid/blank votes	48,220	–	–	–
Total	5,615,242	100	349	0
Registered voters/turnout	6,249,445	89.9	–	–
Source: Nohlen & Stöver

^a The Centre Party and Christian Democratic Unity (CDU) ran a joint list known as Centre.[3] One CDU candidate was elected on the Centre list, the first time the party had had parliamentary representation.[2]

Popular vote S   44.68% M   21.33% FP   14.23% C   12.42% VPK   5.36% MP   1.50% Others   0.48%

Parliament seats S   45.56% M   21.78% FP   14.61% C   12.61% VPK   5.44%

Results 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.
• 
  Cartogram of the map to the left with each municipality rescaled to the number of valid votes cast.
• 
  Map showing the voting shifts from the 1982 to the 1985 election. Darker blue indicates a municipality voted more towards the parties that formed the centre-right bloc. Darker red indicates a municipality voted more towards the parties that form the left-wing bloc.
• 
  Votes by municipality as a scale from red/Left-wing bloc to blue/Centre-right bloc.
• 
  Cartogram of vote with each municipality rescaled in proportion to number of valid votes cast. Deeper blue represents a relative majority for the centre-right coalition, brighter red represents a relative majority for the left-wing coalition.

References

1. Nohlen, D & Stöver, P (2010) Elections in Europe: A data handbook, p1858 ISBN 978-3-8329-5609-7
2. Nohlen & Stöver, p1873
3. Nohlen & Stöver, p1869