ABSTRACT
The Swedish general elections of September 2006 ushered in some dramatic political changes. First, the Conservative (Nya Moderaterna) Party received record high support (26.1%) in the parliamentary election and the Social Democratic Party noted record low support (35.2%), while the five other parties that received between 7.9% and 5.2% of the votes were returned to the Riksdag. Second, the non-socialist parties, known as the Alliance for Sweden, could form a new coalition government with a majority of 178 seats of 349 in the Riksdag. Third, the populist, anti-immigrant party, Sverigedemokraterna (sd), received 2.94%, falling short of gaining representation in the Riksdag,1
but it did get 281 seats in the local elections2 in 144 municipalities, or nearly half of them. Table 1.1 in the appendix shows the results of the Riksdag elections between 1982 and 2006. Some foreign observers now claim that the Swedish electorate has turned its back on the welfare state. However, it is far too soon to claim that this election represents a sharp turn to the right in Swedish politics or that the results threaten the Swedish welfare state.
