General elections were held in

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

on 14 September 2014 to elect all 349 seats in the

Riksdag The Riksdag ( , ; also or , ) is the parliament and the parliamentary sovereignty, supreme decision-making body of the Kingdom of Sweden. Since 1971, the Riksdag has been a unicameral parliament with 349 members (), elected proportional rep ...

, alongside elections for the 21

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, and 290 municipal assemblies. The centre-right

Alliance for Sweden The Alliance (, from 2004-10 the ''Alliance for Sweden,'' ), was a Centre-right politics, centre-right liberal-conservative political alliance in Sweden. The Alliance consisted of the four centre-right list of political parties in Sweden, politic ...

coalition A coalition is formed when two or more people or groups temporarily work together to achieve a common goal. The term is most frequently used to denote a formation of power in political, military, or economic spaces. Formation According to ''A G ...

(comprising the

Moderate Party The Moderate Party ( , , M), commonly referred to as the Moderates ( ), is a Liberal conservatism, liberal-conservative* * * * * List of political parties in Sweden, political party in Sweden. The party generally supports tax cuts, the free ma ...

, 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 Social democracy is a social, economic, and political philosophy within socialism that supports political and economic democracy and a gradualist, reformist, and democratic approach toward achieving social equality. In modern practice, s ...

Green Party A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as environmentalism and social justice. Green party platforms typically embrace Social democracy, social democratic economic policies and fo ...

, and Left Party) ran independent campaigns, as did the

far-right Far-right politics, often termed right-wing extremism, encompasses a range of ideologies that are marked by ultraconservatism, authoritarianism, ultranationalism, and nativism. This political spectrum situates itself on the far end of the ...

Sweden Democrats The Sweden Democrats ( , SD ) is a Nationalism, nationalist and Right-wing populism, right-wing populist political party in Sweden founded in 1988. As of 2024, it is the largest member of Sweden's Right-wing politics, right-wing bloc and the sec ...

. 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 Svealand (), or Swealand, is the historical core region of Sweden. It is located in south-central Sweden and is one of the three historical lands of Sweden, bounded to the north by Norrland and to the south by Götaland. Deep forests, Tive ...

. The Sweden Democrats also became the largest party in two rural municipalities in

Scania Scania ( ), also known by its native name of Skåne (), is the southernmost of the historical provinces of Sweden, provinces () of Sweden. Located in the south tip of the geographical region of Götaland, the province is roughly conterminous w ...

in the party's southern heartlands.

Fredrik Reinfeldt John Fredrik Reinfeldt (pronounced ; born 4 August 1965) is a Swedish economist, lecturer, former Prime Minister of Sweden from 2006 to 2014 and chairman of the liberal conservative Moderate Party from 2003 to 2015. He was the last rotating Presi ...

, the incumbent prime minister, lost his bid for a third term. On 3 October, he was replaced by

Stefan Löfven Kjell Stefan Löfven (; officially Löfvén; born 21 July 1957) is a Swedish politician who has served as the President of European Socialists since October 2022. He previously served as Prime Minister of Sweden from October 2014 to November 20 ...

, who formed a

minority government A minority government, minority cabinet, minority administration, or a minority parliament is a government and cabinet formed in a parliamentary system when a political party or coalition of parties does not have a majority of overall seats in ...

consisting of the Social Democrats and Greens. With the result being a

hung parliament A hung parliament is a term used in legislatures primarily under the Westminster system (typically employing Majoritarian representation, majoritarian electoral systems) to describe a situation in which no single political party or pre-existing ...

, 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 Blekinge () is one of the traditional Swedish provinces (), situated in the southern coast of the geographic region of Götaland, in southern Sweden. It borders Småland, Scania and the Baltic Sea. It is the country's second-smallest provin ...

Dalarna Dalarna (; ), also referred to by the English exonyms Dalecarlia and the Dales, is a (historical province) in central Sweden. Dalarna adjoins Härjedalen, Hälsingland, Gästrikland, Västmanland and Värmland. It is also bordered by Nor ...

Södermanland Södermanland ( ), locally Sörmland, sometimes referred to under its Latinisation of names, Latinized form Sudermannia or Sudermania, is a Provinces of Sweden, historical province (or ) on the south eastern coast of Sweden. It borders Österg� ...

and

Västmanland Västmanland ( or ) is a historical Swedish province, or , in middle Sweden. It borders Södermanland, Närke, Värmland, Dalarna and Uppland. Västmanland means "West Man Land" or, less literally, "The Land of the Western Men", where the "we ...

saw the red-greens failed to secure an outright majority in spite of the election win. 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.

Background

The 2010 general election saw the incumbent

returned to power, though it lost its majority in the Riksdag and had to continue as a

. The coalition relied on ''ad hoc'' support from the opposition to pass legislation, particularly the

. Immigration critics

entered the Riksdag for the first time in 2010 and was an isolated part of the opposition, in many cases voting with the government when the two blocs were divided. The Alliance got its budget passed on all occasions, but suffered a key loss when the opposition 'took out' a passage regarding the increased cutoff for when state income tax should be paid in late 2013. The previous parliament had also passed some amendments to the

Constitution of Sweden The Basic Laws of Sweden () are the four constitutional laws of the Kingdom of Sweden that regulate the Swedish political system, acting in a similar manner to the constitutions of most countries. These four laws are: the Instrument of Governmen ...

. Election days were moved from the third Sunday of September to the second Sunday of the same month. Another change was that the incumbent

Prime Minister of Sweden The prime minister of Sweden (, "minister of state") is the head of government of the Sweden, Kingdom of Sweden. The prime minister and their cabinet (the government) exercise executive authority in the Kingdom of Sweden and are subject to th ...

, should he or she not resign immediately after the election, must be approved by the new Riksdag.

Incumbent parties

The

Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties Form ...

(S; Socialdemokraterna) was the largest political party in the Swedish Riksdag with 112 of the 349 seats. The Social Democratic Party had led a single-party

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a State (polity), state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive (government), execu ...

from 1994 to 2006, and had been the major political power of Sweden for much of the 20th century. For the 2010 general election the Social Democratic Party collaborated with the Green Party and the Left Party and sought to form a Red-Green coalition government. Similar cooperation did not take place prior to the 2014 election. Their current

party leader In a governmental system, a party leader acts as the official representative of their political party, either to a legislature or to the electorate. Depending on the country, the individual colloquially referred to as the "leader" of a politica ...

has said they could potentially collaborate with the Centre Party and the Liberal People's Party in a future government. By the 2014 general election the Social Democratic Party had been in opposition for eight years, the longest such period in over 100 years. The

(M; Moderaterna) was the second-largest party in the Riksdag with 107 seats. It was the largest governing party under

Prime Minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

, who was also its leader. Prior to the 2006 general election the Moderate Party had formed the Alliance for Sweden coalition, together with the Centre Party, the Liberal People's Party and the Christian Democrats. After the 2006 election they were able to form a

majority A majority is more than half of a total; however, the term is commonly used with other meanings, as explained in the "#Related terms, Related terms" section below. It is a subset of a Set (mathematics), set consisting of more than half of the se ...

coalition government. The Alliance successfully sought re-election in the 2010 general election, but were reduced to a minority coalition government. The Green Party (MP; Miljöpartiet) was the third-largest party in the Riksdag with 25 seats. They are the only Swedish party to have two

spokesperson A spokesperson, spokesman, or spokeswoman is someone engaged or elected to speak on behalf of others. Duties and function In the present media-sensitive world, many organizations are increasingly likely to employ professionals who have receiv ...

s, currently Gustav Fridolin and

Isabella Lövin Isabella Lövin (born 3 February 1963) is a Sweden, Swedish politician for the Green Party (Sweden), Green Party. She served as Minister for International Development Cooperation (Sweden), Minister for International Development Cooperation from 2 ...

. The Green Party had participated in the Red-Green coalition prior to the 2010 general election. The coalition, however, lost that election, although the Green Party itself gained seats. The party has shown interest in participating in a future government, but has not made clear with whom. The Liberal People's Party (FP; Folkpartiet Liberalerna) was the fourth-largest party in the Riksdag with 24 seats. The party had since 2010 been the second-largest governing party under Prime Minister Reinfeldt. Current

Jan Björklund was Deputy Prime Minister of Sweden and Sweden's Minister for Education. Prior to the 2006 general election the Liberal People's Party had formed the Alliance for Sweden coalition together with the Moderate Party, the Centre Party and the Christian Democrats. They formed a majority coalition government in 2006 and a minority coalition government in 2010. The Centre Party (C; Centerpartiet) was the fifth-largest party in the Riksdag with 23 seats. The party had since 2010 been the third-largest governing party under Prime Minister Reinfeldt, having been the second-largest from 2006 to 2010. Current party leader Annie Lööf was Sweden's Minister for Enterprise. Prior to the 2006 general election the Centre Party had formed the Alliance for Sweden coalition together with the Moderate Party, the Liberal People's Party and the Christian Democrats. They formed a majority coalition government in 2006 and a minority coalition government in 2010. The Sweden Democrats (SD; Sverigedemokraterna) was the sixth-largest party in the Riksdag with 20 seats. In the 2010 general election, the party had for the first time ever passed the 4% election threshold and entered the Riksdag. The party leader was

Jimmie Åkesson Per Jimmie Åkesson (; born 17 May 1979) is a Swedish politician and author, serving as leader of the Sweden Democrats since 2005. He has been a member of the Riksdag (SD) for Jönköping County (Riksdag constituency), Jönköping County since ...

. The other Riksdag parties have repeatedly stated that they will not cooperate with the Sweden Democrats in a future government. The Left Party (V; Vänsterpartiet) was the seventh-largest party in the Riksdag with 19 seats. The current party leader was

Jonas Sjöstedt Tor Jonas Sjöstedt (born 25 December 1964) is a Swedish politician who has been a Member of the European Parliament for the Left Party (Sweden), Left Party since 2024. He served as the leader of the Left Party from 2012 to 2020, was a member o ...

. The Left Party had participated in the Red-Green coalition prior to the 2010 general election which sought confidence to govern Sweden; however, this coalition lost the election. The party has shown interest in participating in a future government consisting of the Red-Green parties. The party has said that it will not support a future government of which it is not a part. The Christian Democrats (KD; Kristdemokraterna) was the eighth-largest party in the Riksdag with 19 seats. It was the fourth-largest governing party under Prime Minister Reinfeldt. The current party leader Göran Hägglund was Sweden's Minister for Health and Social Affairs. Prior to the 2006 general election the Christian Democrats had formed the Alliance for Sweden coalition, together with the Moderate Party, the Liberal People's Party and the Centre Party. They formed a majority coalition government in 2006 and a minority coalition government in 2010. Party leaders debates "Partiledardebatt" , 1 September 2014. Present party leaders:

(M),

, Gustav Fridolin (MP), Jan Björklund (FP), Annie Lööf (C),

(SD),

(V) and Göran Hägglund (KD). Moderators: Karin Magnusson and Malvina Britts. "Partiledardebatt 2014" , September, 3rd 2014. Present party leaders: Fredrik Reinfeldt (M), Stefan Löfven (S), Åsa Romson (MP), Jan Björklund (FP), Annie Lööf (C), Jimmie Åkesson (SD), Jonas Sjöstedt (V) and Göran Hägglund (KD). Moderator: Niklas Svensson. "Partiledardebatt" SR P1, 10 September 2014. Present party leaders: Fredrik Reinfeldt (M), Stefan Löfven (S), Åsa Romson (MP), Jan Björklund (FP), Annie Lööf (C), Jimmie Åkesson (SD), Jonas Sjöstedt (V), Göran Hägglund (KD). Moderators: Monica Saarinen and Lasse Johansson. "Debatten" TV4, 11 September 2014. Present party leaders: Fredrik Reinfeldt (M), Stefan Löfven (S), Åsa Romson (MP), Jan Björklund (FP), Annie Lööf (C), Jimmie Åkesson (SD), Jonas Sjöstedt (V), Göran Hägglund (KD). Moderators: Jenny Strömstedt and Anders Pihlblad. "Slutdebatten" SVT, 12 September 2014. Present party leaders: Fredrik Reinfeldt (M), Stefan Löfven (S), Gustav Fridolin (MP), Jan Björklund (FP), Annie Lööf (C), Jimmie Åkesson (SD), Jonas Sjöstedt (V), Göran Hägglund (KD). Moderators:

Anna Hedenmo Anna Birgitta Hedenmo (; born 21 March 1961) is a Swedish journalist and television presenter who has worked for Sveriges Television, SVT since 1993. She is best known as the presenter of ''Agenda (Swedish TV program), Agenda'', and the intervie ...

and Mats Knutson.

Leadership changes

The election took place with several changes in party leadership from the 2010 election.

Social Democratic Party

Social Democratic party leader

Mona Sahlin Mona Ingeborg Sahlin (; ; born 9 March 1957) is a Swedes, Swedish politician who was leader of the opposition and leader of the Swedish Social Democratic Party from 2007 to 2011. Sahlin was a Parliament of Sweden, Member of Parliament, represen ...

stepped down after her party's poor election results in 2010. She was replaced by Håkan Juholt at the party congress on 25 March 2011. Juholt was previously the chairman for the parliamentary committee on defence issues (försvarsutskottet), and a 16-year MP representing Kalmar. At the time of his appointment, Juholt was considered by political commentators to represent the more traditional left wing of the Social Democratic Party. However, Juholt's time as party chairman only lasted ten months before he resigned on 21 January 2012 amid controversy surrounding a political affair. The party executive board announced their endorsement of Stefan Löfven as the new party chairman on 26 January 2012; he was elected chairman of the party by members the following day. Löfven was the chairman of IF Metall until his appointment and has had a long career as a trade union leader. As Löfven was not an elected MP, he remained unable to participate in the day-to-day activities and debates in the

Green Party

The Green Party's co-spokespeople both stepped down, having both served the maximum nine years allowed by the party's constitution, and were officially replaced by a party congress in May 2011. A nominating committee nominated Gustav Fridolin ( MP for Skåne Northern and Eastern) and Åsa Romson (party spokesperson for environmental and climate policy, and MP for

Stockholm Municipality Stockholm Municipality () or the City of Stockholm () is a municipality in Stockholm County in east central Sweden. It has the largest population of the 290 municipalities of the country, but one of the smallest areas, making it the second most ...

). However, economic policy spokesperson Mikaela Valtersson also expressed her intention to challenge Romson for the nomination. Other candidates identified by the press included Yvonne Ruwaida and Carl Schlyter. On 21 May 2011, the party congress elected Fridolin and Romson as the party's new co-spokespersons.

Centre Party

In June 2011, Maud Olofsson announced that she would not stand for re-election as leader of the Centre Party. On 23 September 2011, Annie Lööf was elected as the party's new leader.

Left Party

In August 2011, Lars Ohly, the leader of the Left Party, made public that he would step down after the party's poor showing in the election. Ohly stated he would remain an MP. Jonas Sjöstedt was elected new party leader at the party congress on 6 January 2012.

Christian Democrats

At the national party conference in January 2012, the Christian Democrats leader Göran Hägglund was challenged for the leadership by MP and former cabinet minister Mats Odell. The leadership battle ended in a vote at the conference, where Hägglund prevailed. Afterwards, Odell announced that he would resign as leader of the party's parliamentary group, and not seek reelection in 2014.

Opinion polls

Results

The election was apart from the sharp decline of the

Moderates Moderate is an ideological category which entails Centrism, centrist views on a liberal-conservative spectrum. It may also designate a rejection of radical politics, radical or extremism, extreme views, especially in regard to politics and religi ...

and the sharp rise of the

very similar to 2010. The Feminist Initiative numbers in addition to the other three left of centre-parties indicated a further difference not shown in the division of the mandates, due to FI missing the cutoff point. Still, the Sweden Democrats formally held the balance of power, but neither bloc was willing to go to government with their active support. The Social Democrats got the first go at forming a government after eight years in opposition as Moderate prime minister

resigned on election night.

Seat distribution

Results by municipality

File:Riksdagsvalet 2014 (Socialdemokraterna).svg, Social Democratic File:Riksdagsvalet 2014 (Moderaterna).svg, Moderate File:Riksdagsvalet 2014 (Sverigedemokraterna).svg, Sweden Democrats File:Riksdagsvalet 2014 (Miljöpartiet).svg, Green File:Riksdagsvalet 2014 (Centerpartiet).svg, Centre File:Riksdagsvalet 2014 (Vänsterpartiet).svg, Left File:Riksdagsvalet 2014 (Folkpartiet).svg, Liberal People's Party File:Riksdagsvalet 2014 (Kristdemokraterna).svg, Christian Democrats File:Riksdagsvalet 2014 (Feministiskt initiativ).svg, Feminist Initiative File:Swedish Election 2014 Redgreen vs Alliance scale.png, Shaded, red (S+V+MP) to blue (M+C+FP+KD)

Government formation

The Social Democrats declared that they would seek to form a government, but would not work with the Sweden Democrats. Fredrik Reinfeldt announced he was stepping down as leader of the Moderate Party. The Centre Party and Liberal People's Party rejected the Social Democrats' overtures for a coalition, and the day after the election Stefan Löfven ruled out the possibility of forming a government with the Left Party. This raised the possibility of a minority coalition of the Social Democrats and Greens alone. On 2 October 2014 the Riksdag elected Löfven as Prime Minister, heading the Löfven Cabinet consisting of the Social Democrats and the Greens. On 3 December 2014 the government failed to push through its budget after the

voted with the centre-right opposition, that along with the Sweden Democrats had a sizeable majority for the budget in parliament (those five parties won 190 seats to 159 for the government and the Left Party). Löfven told in a press conference, that an extra election were to be expected and to be held on 22 March. According to the

Swedish constitution The Basic Laws of Sweden () are the four constitutional laws of the Kingdom of Sweden that regulate the Swedish political system, acting in a similar manner to the constitutions of most countries. These four laws are: the Instrument of Governmen ...

this election could not be called until 29 December. On 27 December, this new election was cancelled as the Social Democrats and the Greens made an agreement with the Alliance parties which would allow the government's subsequent budgets to pass the Riksdag in return for concessions regarding immigration policy, defence and pensions.

References

{{Swedish elections General elections in Sweden

General A general officer is an Officer (armed forces), officer of high rank in the army, armies, and in some nations' air force, air and space forces, marines or naval infantry. In some usages, the term "general officer" refers to a rank above colone ...