1985 Swedish general election

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| <- 1982 | 15 September 1985 | 1988 ->

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All 349 seats in the Riksdag
175 seats needed for a majority
|  | First party  | Second party  | Third party

|
|
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|  |  |
Leader  | Olof Palme | Ulf Adelsohn | Bengt Westerberg
Party  | Social Democrats | Moderate | Liberals
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  | 44.68%  | 21.33%  | 14.23%
Swing  | 0.93pp  | 2.31pp  | 8.33pp

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| Fourth party  | Fifth party  | Sixth party
|  |  |
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  | 490,999  | 298,419  | 131,548
Percentage  | 8.82%  | 5.36%  | 2.36%
Swing  | 6.46pp  | 0.20pp  | 0.49pp

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Map of the election, showing the distribution of constituency and levelling seats, as well as the largest political bloc within each constituency.

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| PM before election

Olof Palme
Social Democrats

| Elected PM

Olof Palme
Social Democrats

|

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.

## Campaign

[edit]

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.

## Debates

[edit]

1985 Swedish general election debates

Date  | Time  | Organisers  | Moderators  |  P Present  I Invitee N Non-invitee
S | M | C | L | V | Refs
|  |  |  |
28 August 1985  |  |  |  | P
Olof Palme | P
Ulf Adelsohn | N
Thorbjörn Fälldin | N
Ola Ullsten | N
Lars Werner | [3]
13 September 1985  |  | Sveriges Television | Ingemar Odlander | P

* Olof Palme
* Kjell-Olof Feldt

| P
Ulf Adelsohn | P
Thorbjörn Fälldin | P
Bengt Westerberg | P
Lars Werner | [4]

## Results

[edit]

Main article: Results of the 1985 Swedish general election

The Centre Party and Christian Democratic Unity (CDU) ran a joint list in some constituencies under the name "Centre".[5] One CDU candidate was elected on the Centre list, the first time the party had had parliamentary representation.[2]

Party| Votes| %| Seats| +/–
| Swedish Social Democratic Party| 2,487,551| 44.68| 159| –7
| Moderate Party| 1,187,335| 21.33| 76| –10
| People's Party| 792,268| 14.23| 51| +30
| Centre Party| 490,999| 8.82| 43| –13
| Left Party Communists| 298,419| 5.36| 19| –1
| Christian Democratic Unity| 131,548| 2.36| 0| 0
| Green Party| 83,645| 1.50| 0| 0
| Centre (CDU–C)| 73,711| 1.32| 1| –
| Other parties| 21,546| 0.39| 0| 0
Total| 5,567,022| 100.00| 349| 0
Valid votes| 5,567,022| 99.14|
Invalid/blank votes| 48,220| 0.86|
Total votes| 5,615,242| 100.00|
Registered voters/turnout| 6,249,445| 89.85|
Source: Nohlen & Stöver

### Seat distribution

[edit]

Constituency  | Total
seats  | Seats won

|
|

By party  |  | By coalition
S | M | F | C | V | KDS | Left | Right
|  |  |  |  |  |  |
Älvsborg North | 10  | 4  | 2  | 2  | 2  |  |  | 4  | 6
Älvsborg South | 7  | 3  | 2  | 1  | 1  |  |  | 3  | 4
Blekinge | 6  | 3  | 1  | 1  | 1  |  |  | 3  | 3
Bohus | 12  | 5  | 3  | 2  | 2  |  |  | 5  | 7
Fyrstadskretsen | 20  | 9  | 6  | 3  | 1  | 1  |  | 10  | 10
Gävleborg | 13  | 7  | 2  | 1  | 2  | 1  |  | 8  | 5
Gothenburg | 18  | 7  | 4  | 4  | 1  | 2  |  | 9  | 9
Gotland | 2  | 1  |  |  | 1  |  |  | 1  | 1
Halland | 10  | 4  | 2  | 2  | 2  |  |  | 4  | 6
Jämtland | 5  | 3  | 1  |  | 1  |  |  | 3  | 2
Jönköping | 13  | 5  | 3  | 2  | 2  |  | 1  | 5  | 8
Kalmar | 10  | 5  | 2  | 1  | 2  |  |  | 5  | 5
Kopparberg | 12  | 6  | 2  | 1  | 2  | 1  |  | 7  | 5
Kristianstad  | 12  | 5  | 3  | 2  | 2  |  |  | 5  | 7
Kronoberg | 7  | 3  | 2  | 1  | 1  |  |  | 3  | 4
Malmöhus  | 12  | 5  | 3  | 2  | 2  |  |  | 5  | 7
Norrbotten | 11  | 7  | 1  | 1  | 1  | 1  |  | 8  | 3
Örebro | 12  | 6  | 2  | 2  | 1  | 1  |  | 7  | 5
Östergötland | 16  | 8  | 3  | 2  | 2  | 1  |  | 9  | 7
Skaraborg | 11  | 5  | 2  | 2  | 2  |  |  | 5  | 6
Södermanland | 9  | 5  | 2  | 1  | 1  |  |  | 5  | 4
Stockholm County | 36  | 14  | 11  | 6  | 2  | 3  |  | 17  | 19
Stockholm Municipality | 29  | 11  | 9  | 5  | 1  | 3  |  | 14  | 15
Uppsala | 11  | 5  | 2  | 2  | 1  | 1  |  | 6  | 5
Värmland | 12  | 6  | 2  | 1  | 2  | 1  |  | 7  | 5
Västerbotten | 11  | 5  | 1  | 2  | 2  | 1  |  | 6  | 5
Västernorrland | 11  | 6  | 1  | 1  | 2  | 1  |  | 7  | 4
Västmanland | 11  | 6  | 2  | 1  | 1  | 1  |  | 7  | 4
Total  | 349  | 159  | 76  | 51  | 43  | 19  | 1  | 178  | 171
Source: Statistics Sweden

### By municipality

[edit]

* 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

[edit]

1. ^ Dieter Nohlen & Philip Stöver (2010) Elections in Europe: A data handbook, p1858 ISBN 978-3-8329-5609-7
2. ^ a b Nohlen & Stöver, p1873
3. ^ Valet 1985 - Duellen - Olof Palme (S) och Ulf Adelsohn (M), retrieved 1 February 2024
4. ^ "Slutdebatt 1985". SVT Play (in Swedish). 2 April 2017.
5. ^ Nohlen & Stöver, p1869

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*[Left]: S, V
*[Right]: M, F, C, KDS
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