Sweden 2006

[minionofmidas]

Didn't check at the municipality level, but at the constituency level Norrbotten was the only place SD gained. And that seems to be due to a collapse in the "other" vote - probably the collapse of that party mentioned a couple of posts ago by Ernest? (2002, Norrbotten had the highest other vote of all, 10.0%. Now, it's below the national average at 5.6%, while the other vote increased everywhere else.)

You mean SAP when you say SD right?

Eh. SD was short for Social Democrats.

[Gustaf]

Didn't check at the municipality level, but at the constituency level Norrbotten was the only place SD gained. And that seems to be due to a collapse in the "other" vote - probably the collapse of that party mentioned a couple of posts ago by Ernest? (2002, Norrbotten had the highest other vote of all, 10.0%. Now, it's below the national average at 5.6%, while the other vote increased everywhere else.)

You mean SAP when you say SD right?

Eh. SD was short for Social Democrats.

Since it's the commonly used acronym for Sverigedemokraterna, it can lead to fatal misunderstandings.

[Gustaf]

To give a brief party-by-party analysis:

SAP: They actually seemed to have made a lot of gains, primarily in their traditional rural strongholds, and especially in places where they were ousted in any of the previous two elections. In many places in Norrbotten for instance unholy alliances often led by V or local parties dethroned the SAP, but were now fought back. And in the Värmland region Sjukvårdspartiet helped the Blue Bloc to power in 2002, but was now cut back severely, with the SAP gaining. Part of the explanation is of course the abysmal result for V, which lost votes everywhere.

Of course all of this was off-set by heavy losses in urban and suburban areas and also in most of the rural South. And interesting fact is that SAP seems to have performed better on the local and regional level than on the national level, which is unusual.

M: Basically gained everywhere. Seems to have done better on the national level than on the local level. Not much to comment on really.

FP: Lost votes almost everywhere. Seems to be a few local areas where they gained but, not many. Their weak regional bases in many places were severely damaged and they're on their way to becoming a strictly urban/suburban party again.

C: Displayed an interesting pattern, in that they gained votes primarily in urban and suburban areas where they haven't existed for almost a decade. In Nacka they regained represenation for the first time since 1994, and the same goes for Stockholm. Encouraging for C, which might become a truly national party again. In rural strongholds however, they often lost votes rather than gained. Of course, this means that they consolidated their gains in these areas from last time around.

KD: Basically lost ground everywhere, as far as I can tell. Seems to have saved themselves in a lot of traditionally weak areas, such as Stockholm though. I guess their campaign during the final weeks was strong as usual and helped them hold on to their Stockholm seats to quite a large extent.

V: Lost votes everywhere, especially in "leftist" areas where the SAP drained them quite a lot. One of the few exceptions was Fagersta where popular V leader Stig Henriksson led an unholy alliance with the centre-right to victory in 1998. After cutting taxes every year he gained an own majority in 2002, but continued the cooperation with the centre-right. This time he increased his majority to an astounding 58%. It's sympotmatic of V that such as politician was kicked out of the party leadership committe recently; V nowadays prefer to lose voters over pragmatic politics.

MP: Gained hugely in urban areas, but didn't move much in other parts. They picked up a lot of local seats though by small margins, usually due to V losing votes, rather than them gaining much. They basically strengthened their profile as an almost exclusively urban party. In their former stronghold Kalix in Norrbotten they lost enormously (-33%).

[Filuwaúrdjan]

And interesting fact is that SAP seems to have performed better on the local and regional level than on the national level, which is unusual.

So the outgoing SAP national government was more unpopular than the party itself?
Or something else?

[Gustaf]

And interesting fact is that SAP seems to have performed better on the local and regional level than on the national level, which is unusual.

So the outgoing SAP national government was more unpopular than the party itself?
Or something else?

I'm not sure...I guess that people traditionally have vented their anti-SAP feelings in local votes, rather than national ones, so their might have been a catch-up effect on the national level. Secondly, there is always a bit of a back-lash against incumbent parties in local elections and that hurt the SAP in many previous elections. This time they recovered a lot in many regions, especially Norrbotten as has been discussed above.

But, yes, there was probably an element of the SAP government being especially impopular. It should be noted though that the Stockholm branch was even worse off and did extremely badl, especially on the municipiality level. But, in many places the local SAP-leader was probably a more popular figure than Göran Persson. This is particularly noticeable in Sweden's 2nd city, Göteborg (Gothenburg) where the Blue Bloc won the vote for Riksdag by 4% but local SAP leader Göran Johansson cemented his popularity by gaining and winning comfortably. Of course, Johansson was thrown out of the party leadership after a conflict with Persson, who refused to grant him an audience...