2002 Swedish general election
General elections were held in Sweden on 15 September 2002, alongside municipal and county council elections. The Swedish Social Democratic Party remained the largest party in the Riksdag, winning 144 of the 349 seats. ¹ New Democracy was dissolved by the time of the election and did not run, but some voters wrote the party name on an empty ballot anyway. Madeley, John T. S.. "'The Swedish model is dead! Long live the Swedish model!' The 2002 Riksdag election". West European Politics. 26: 165–173. Doi:10.1080/01402380512331341161
Sweden Democrats
Sweden Democrats or Swedish Democrats is a social conservative and right-wing populist political party in Sweden, founded in 1988. The party describes itself as social conservative with a nationalist foundation; the party has been characterized by others as far-right, national-conservative, anti-immigration. Jimmie Åkesson has been party leader since 2005; the party has its roots in Swedish fascism and was a white nationalist movement through the early-1990s, when it first began distancing itself from its past. Today, the Sweden Democrats reject both fascism and Nazism; the Sweden Democrats crossed the 4% threshold necessary for parliamentary representation for the first time in the 2010 general election, polling 5.7% and gaining 20 seats in the Riksdag. This increase in popularity has been compared by international media to other similar anti-immigration movements in Europe; the party received increased support in the 2018 Swedish general election, when it polled 17.5% and secured 62 seats in parliament, becoming the third largest party in Sweden.
The Sweden Democrats remained isolated in the Riksdag for a long time because the other parties staunchly maintained a policy of refusing cooperation with them. However, in March 2019 Christian Democratic leader Ebba Busch Thor announced that her party was ready to start negotiations with the Sweden Democrats in the Riksdag; the Sweden Democrats are a member of European Conservatives and Reformists group in the European Parliament. The party was against the European Union, supported a Swedish exit from the EU until January 2019; the Sweden Democrats party was founded in 1988 as a direct successor to the Sweden Party, which in turn had been formed in 1986 by the merger of Bevara Sverige Svenskt and a faction of the Swedish Progress Party. SD claims 6 February 1988 as the date of its foundation, although observers tend to see the party's foundation as part of a complex decade-long series of events, with some calling into question whether a meeting took place on 6 February; the party has its roots in Swedish fascism and was a white nationalist movement through the early-1990s, when it first began distancing itself from its past.
The SD's logo from the 1990s until 2006 was a version of the torch used by the UK National Front. While opinions on the early SD vary, it is agreed that SD has never been a Nazi party, although various connections have existed through some of its former members; the party sponsored music of the nationalist Viking rock band Ultima Thule, various party officials today acknowledge that being fans of Ultima Thule's music factored prominently in their decision to become politically engaged. Among the founding officials of the party were several people that had expressed strong support for the ideology of Nazi Germany; the party's first auditor, Gustaf Ekström, was a Waffen-SS veteran and had been a member of the national socialist party Svensk Socialistisk Samling in the 1940s. In 1989, Ekström was a member of the Sweden Democrats' national board. SD's first chairman Anders. Early on, the party recommended international connections to its members such as the National Democratic Party of Germany, the American National Association for the Advancement of White People and publications like the Nazi Nation Europa and Nouvelle École, a newspaper that advocates racial biology.
From 1995 onwards the party's new leader, Mikael Jansson, strove to make the party more respectable and, after photographs surfaced of some members posing in Nazi uniforms at party meetings, the wearing of any kind of uniform was formally banned in 1996. During the 1990s, the party became more influenced by the French National Front, as well as the Freedom Party of Austria, the Danish People's Party, German The Republicans and Italian National Alliance. SD received economic support for the 1998 election from the French National Front, was active in Le Pen's Euronat from the same time. SD, however, in 1999 left its membership in Euronat to its youth organisation. In 2001 the most extreme faction was expelled from the party, leading to the formation of the more radical National Democrats. During the 2000s the so-called "Scania gang", or "Gang of Four" – Jimmie Åkesson, Björn Söder, Mattias Karlsson and Richard Jomshof – continued and expanded the moderation policy, which included ousting extremist members.
Before the 2002 election, former Moderate Party MP Sten Christer Andersson defected to SD, citing that the party had gotten rid of its extreme-right elements. In 2003 the party declared the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to be a cornerstone of its policies. In 2006 the party changed its logo from the torch to one featuring an Anemone hepatica, reminiscent of the party's first, but short-lived, logo. In the 2010 general election, SD won representation in the Swedish Riksdag for the first time, with 5.7% of the vote and 20 MPs. Sweden Democrat MP William Petzäll was persuaded to leave the party on 26 September 2011 while still retaining his parliamentary seat; this was done because of Petzäll's substance abuse and the problems this might cause for SD's public image. Petzäll died of an overdose and his seat was turned over to Stellan Bojerud in September 2012. In November 2012, videos from August 2010 were released, in segments, over the course of three days by Swedish newspaper Expressen.
This came to be known as the Iron pipe scandal, although t
1979 Swedish general election
General elections were held in Sweden on 16 September 1979. Although the Swedish Social Democratic Party remained the largest party, winning 154 of the 349 seats in the Riksdag, the liberal interim government of Ola Ullsten was succeeded by another centre-right coalition government composed of the People's Party, the Moderate Party and the Centre Party, led by Centre Party leader Thorbjörn Fälldin; the three parties together won 175 seats, compared to the 174 won by the Social Democrats and Communists. It was the only time that non-socialist parties retained power in an election between 1928 and 2010; the Moderates increased their representation in the Riksdag, becoming the largest party of the non-socialist bloc, a position they have maintained since. Despite the unexpected victory, the coalition split in 1981 when the Moderates withdrew support in protest at Fälldin's tax policies, which they viewed as "too leftist". Despite not being the leader of the coalition party with the most seats, Fälldin had been the designate Prime Minister since his earlier resignation in 1978, upon disagreement over the question of nuclear power
Swedish Social Democratic Party
The Swedish Social Democratic Party, contesting elections as the Arbetarepartiet–Socialdemokraterna and referred to just as the Social Democrats, is the oldest and largest political party in Sweden. The current party leader since 2012 is Stefan Löfven, Prime Minister of Sweden since 2014. Founded in 1889, a schism occurred in 1917 when the left socialists split from the Social Democrats to form the Swedish Social Democratic Left Party; the symbol of the SAP is traditionally a red rose, believed to have been Fredrik Ström's idea. The words of honour, as recorded by the 2001 party programme, are "freedom and solidarity." The party had influences from Marxism in its early days, however these were removed in the years leading up to the split in 1917. In 2007, the Social Democrats elected Mona Sahlin as its first female party leader. On 7 December 2009, the Social Democrats launched a political and electoral coalition known as the Red-Greens together with the Greens and the Left Party; the parties contested the 2010 election on a joint manifesto, but lost the election to the incumbent centre-right coalition The Alliance.
On 26 November 2010 the Red-Green alliance was dissolved. The Social Democratic Party has about 100,000 members, with about 2,540 local party associations and 500 workplace associations, it has been the largest party in the Riksdag since 1914. The member base is diverse, but prominently features organized blue-collar workers and public sector employees; the party has a historical relationship with the Swedish Trade Union Confederation. Organisations within the Swedish social democratic movement: The National Federation of Social Democratic Women in Sweden organizes women; the Swedish Social Democratic Youth League organizes youth. The Social Democratic Students of Sweden organizes university students; the Religious Social Democrats of Sweden organizes all members with religious beliefs. The LGBT Social Democrats of Sweden organizes LGBT-people; the Swedish Social Democratic Party had its golden age during the mid-1930s to mid-1980s when in half of all general elections they got between 44.6% and 46.2% of the votes, making it one of the most successful political parties in the history of the liberal democratic world.
In two of the general elections, in 1940 and 1968, they got more than 50%. In 1940 all established Swedish parties, except for the Communist Party, had a coalition government due to the pressures of the Second World War, it led to voters most wanting one party to be in majority to give a parliament that couldn't be hung. In 1944 the tides of the war had turned and the allied nations looked to win, giving voters more confidence in voting by preference and explaining the more normal electoral result of 46.6%. There might well have among parts of the public regarding how the Communist Party was held out of the government, in 1944 they got 10.3%. In 1968 the established Communist Party, most due to bad press about the Soviets overtaking of Czechoslovakia, got a very bad result of 3% of the votes, while the Social Democrats enjoyed 50.1% and their own majority in parliament. Only in a brief period between the elections of 1973 to 1979 did the Social Democrats get below the normal interval of 44.6% to 46.2%, instead scoring an average of 43.2%, losing in 1976, the first time in 44 years, again just in 1979.
However, they won back power in 1982 with a normal result of 45.6%. The voter base consists of a diverse swathe of people throughout Swedish society, although it is strong amongst organised blue-collar workers. In the 2006 general election, the Social Democratic Party received the smallest share of votes in a general election with universal suffrage, resulting in the loss of office to the opposition, the centre-right coalition Alliance for Sweden. Among the support that the Social Democratic Party lost in the 2006 election was the vote of pensioners, blue-collar trade unionists; the combined Social Democratic Party and Left Party vote of citizens with non-Nordic foreign backgrounds sank from 73% in 2002 to 48% in 2006. Stockholm County votes for the centre-right parties. Only 23% of Stockholm City residents voted for S in 2006. From 2006 to 2014, the Social Democrats lost two consecutive terms to the centre-right Alliance, due to the centrist liberal attitudes of Prime Minister Frederik Reinfeldt attracted some of the S voters.
In 2010, 2014 and 2018, the vote shares of S declined, some of these votes were lost to the right-wing populist Sweden Democrats. In the 2018 Swedish general election The Social Democrats' vote share fell to 28.3 percent, its lowest level of support since 1911. In the 1890s the Social Democrats stood on the same ticket as the Liberals; the party's first chapter in its statutes says "the intension of the Swedish Social Democratic Labour Party is the struggle towards the Democratic Socialism," that is, a society with a democratic economy based on the socialist principle, "From each ac
Sweden
Sweden the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Scandinavian Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north and Finland to the east, is connected to Denmark in the southwest by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund, a strait at the Swedish-Danish border. At 450,295 square kilometres, Sweden is the largest country in Northern Europe, the third-largest country in the European Union and the fifth largest country in Europe by area. Sweden has a total population of 10.2 million. It has a low population density of 22 inhabitants per square kilometre; the highest concentration is in the southern half of the country. Germanic peoples have inhabited Sweden since prehistoric times, emerging into history as the Geats and Swedes and constituting the sea peoples known as the Norsemen. Southern Sweden is predominantly agricultural, while the north is forested. Sweden is part of the geographical area of Fennoscandia; the climate is in general mild for its northerly latitude due to significant maritime influence, that in spite of this still retains warm continental summers.
Today, the sovereign state of Sweden is a constitutional monarchy and parliamentary democracy, with a monarch as head of state, like its neighbour Norway. The capital city is Stockholm, the most populous city in the country. Legislative power is vested in the 349-member unicameral Riksdag. Executive power is exercised by the government chaired by the prime minister. Sweden is a unitary state divided into 21 counties and 290 municipalities. An independent Swedish state emerged during the early 12th century. After the Black Death in the middle of the 14th century killed about a third of the Scandinavian population, the Hanseatic League threatened Scandinavia's culture and languages; this led to the forming of the Scandinavian Kalmar Union in 1397, which Sweden left in 1523. When Sweden became involved in the Thirty Years War on the Reformist side, an expansion of its territories began and the Swedish Empire was formed; this became one of the great powers of Europe until the early 18th century. Swedish territories outside the Scandinavian Peninsula were lost during the 18th and 19th centuries, ending with the annexation of present-day Finland by Russia in 1809.
The last war in which Sweden was directly involved was in 1814, when Norway was militarily forced into personal union. Since Sweden has been at peace, maintaining an official policy of neutrality in foreign affairs; the union with Norway was peacefully dissolved in 1905. Sweden was formally neutral through both world wars and the Cold War, albeit Sweden has since 2009 moved towards cooperation with NATO. After the end of the Cold War, Sweden joined the European Union on 1 January 1995, but declined NATO membership, as well as Eurozone membership following a referendum, it is a member of the United Nations, the Nordic Council, the Council of Europe, the World Trade Organization and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Sweden maintains a Nordic social welfare system that provides universal health care and tertiary education for its citizens, it has the world's eleventh-highest per capita income and ranks in numerous metrics of national performance, including quality of life, education, protection of civil liberties, economic competitiveness, equality and human development.
The name Sweden was loaned from Dutch in the 17th century to refer to Sweden as an emerging great power. Before Sweden's imperial expansion, Early Modern English used Swedeland. Sweden is derived through back-formation from Old English Swēoþēod, which meant "people of the Swedes"; this word is derived from Sweon/Sweonas. The Swedish name Sverige means "realm of the Swedes", excluding the Geats in Götaland. Variations of the name Sweden are used in most languages, with the exception of Danish and Norwegian using Sverige, Faroese Svøríki, Icelandic Svíþjóð, the more notable exception of some Finnic languages where Ruotsi and Rootsi are used, names considered as referring to the people from the coastal areas of Roslagen, who were known as the Rus', through them etymologically related to the English name for Russia; the etymology of Swedes, thus Sweden, is not agreed upon but may derive from Proto-Germanic Swihoniz meaning "one's own", referring to one's own Germanic tribe. Sweden's prehistory begins in the Allerød oscillation, a warm period around 12,000 BC, with Late Palaeolithic reindeer-hunting camps of the Bromme culture at the edge of the ice in what is now the country's southernmost province, Scania.
This period was characterised by small bands of hunter-gatherer-fishers using flint technology. Sweden is first described in a written source in Germania by Tacitus in 98 AD. In Germania 44 and 45 he mentions the Swedes as a powerful tribe with ships that had a prow at each end. Which kings ruled these Suiones is unknown, but Norse mythology presents a long line of legendary and semi-legendary kings going back to the last centuries BC; as for literacy in Sweden itself, the runic script was in use among the south Scandinavian elite by at least the 2nd century AD, but all that has come down to the present from the Roman Period is curt inscriptions on artefacts of male names, demonstrating th
Hallstavik
Hallstavik is a locality situated in Norrtälje Municipality, Stockholm County, Sweden with 4,476 inhabitants in 2010. The town is famous for the Speedway team Rospiggarna. Hallstavik is a society, in a positive development, where residents leave ideas and run various projects to create jobs and employment, it began in late 2007 when Hallstavik Started with local forces that wanted to turn the crisis into growth. The network is an informal organization of all – Norrtälje Municipality, Business Networks and Organizations - who want to help develop Hallstavik. Today there is an established project organization, Hallstaviks network that coordinates everything that happens in and around Hallstavik where several projects are in progress or have been implemented. Outdoor swimming, completed and inaugurated in 2010 is a prestigious project that contributed to many new visitors. Other projects are meeting places for the youth where they e.g. can play music. The project, Skebo Rivers sportfishing sat out trout to create the conditions for angling.
An example of Hallstavik's outstanding citizens, Minnah Karlsson who came second in the Swedish Idol 2010, Minnah is one of the few Idol-participants world over who has once been voted out, to come back and get to the final. It is a great place for business since it is located close to Stockholm and Uppsala. Holmen Paper is a business area within the Holmen Group and one of the leading manufacturers of wood-containing printing paper in Europe with paper mills in Norrköping and Hallstavik; the Group owns forest and power assets. A feasibility study to take advantage of waste heat from the paper mill in Hallstavik is another of the ongoing projects; the residents can submit ideas and collaborate more a project started called "Creative innovation and initiative in social media". This means that all members can register an idea on a digital idea forum, vote for and leave comments work is advanced in a Subgroup to take it to a project with help of the efficient "Hallstaviks network" project organization for the implementation of the idea.
Media related to Hallstavik at Wikimedia Commons
Blidö
Blidö is an island in the Stockholm archipelago and a part of the Norrtälje Municipality. Its northernmost point is called Kråknäset. Journalist and author Ture Nerman owned a summer house on Blidö from 1919 until 1969
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