Centerpartiet

This article deals with the Swedish Center Party. For the similarly named Norwegian party, see Senterpartiet .

Centerpartiet Center Party
Party leader	Annie Lööf
Secretary General	Michael Arthursson
founding	1913
Headquarters	Stockholm
Youth organization	Centerpartiets ungdomsförbund (CUF)
Alignment	Nordic Agrarian Party , Liberalism
Colours)	green
Parliament seats	31/349
Number of members	49,300
International connections	Liberal International (LI)
MEPs	2/21
European party	ALDE
EP Group	RE
Website	www.centerpartiet.se

Centerpartiet (short C , dt. Center Party) is in the Swedish Reichstag represented peasant party . It is a bourgeois, liberal party with a green profile that represents the interests of farmers and small business owners and is elected primarily in rural areas. Annie Lööf has been party leader since 2011 . The Center Party received 8.6% of the vote and 31 of the 349 seats in the most recent Reichstag election in 2018 . At the European level, the party is a member of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe .

history

In 1913, the Bondeförbundet (farmers' union) party was founded to protect the interests of agriculture. In 1921 it merged with the farmers' party Jordbrukarnas Riksförbund (Reich Association of Farmers) founded in 1915 under the name Bondeförbundet , which was retained until 1958 when it was finally renamed Centerpartiet .

In the first few decades Bondeförbundet was an outspoken clientele party that represented the interests of agriculture on a conservative basis. But after the Great Depression in 1929, which also hit agriculture, an agreement was entered into with the Social Democrats in 1933 that included subsidies for agriculture and various measures against unemployment. In 1936, the collaboration led to a coalition government with the Social Democrats, which lasted until the beginning of the Second World War . A second center-left government existed from 1951 to 1957.

Old logo of the Centerpartiet

At the end of the 1960s and beginning of the 70s, environmental issues and nuclear policy became more and more important, and the Center Party made a name for itself with a green policy. This led to the greatest electoral successes in 1973 and 1976, when the party got 25.1 and 24.1% of the vote, respectively. In 1973 a merger with the liberal Folkpartiet was discussed, which was similarly positioned but had its base more in the big cities. This should create a strong middle-class force against the social democrats on the one hand and the conservatives on the other. However, the resistance in the Center Party predominated. The party chairman Thorbjörn Fälldin led 1976-78 and 1979-82 as Prime Minister of a civil coalition. In the meantime, the coalition broke up on the nuclear issue, and unlike the other bourgeois parties, the C was decidedly against the use of nuclear energy. After six years of reign, the 1982 election was finally lost; thereafter the share of the vote fell sharply.

From 1991 to 1994 the Center Party was one of four coalition parties in the bourgeois government, between 1995 and 1998 the social democratic minority government was supported in economic and ecological issues.

The Center Party always faced the challenge of positioning itself with the political blocs. In addition, it is divided on the EU question. After Maud Olofsson took over the chairmanship of the party in 2001, there was a clear trend towards neoliberal positions. The chairwoman responded to the attempts by the Social Democrats to approach the 2002 elections with the words: “I don't want a coalition with Göran Persson , period!” On June 17, 2011, Olofsson announced her withdrawal from the party leadership.

The party's youth association ( Centerpartiets Ungdomsförbund , CUF) has been in contact with the neoliberal think tank "Timbro" for a number of years and leading central politicians such as Fredrick Federley and Annie Lööf , both members of the Swedish Reichstag, and Maud Olofsson himself are now profiling the party as being friendly to small and medium-sized enterprises anti-union. In particular, the relaxation of protection against dismissal has been one of the party's core issues for several years. On environmental issues too, the party leadership has pushed through a change of course in favor of nuclear energy.

The party's repositioning was not without controversy. Maud Olofsson's internal party critics saw the party's ideals threatened, and the fear of a debacle in the 2014 parliamentary elections did the rest. Such fears were at times heightened by poor poll numbers.

In the 2014 election, all Allianz parties lost votes, while the Center Party's losses were comparatively small at 0.5 percentage points. Since then the party has been in opposition. In the 2018 election , C was able to gain significantly.

Election results

Reichstag elections

Elections to the Second Chamber until 1968. Information from Statistiska Centralbyrån .

1921 11.1% 1924 10.8% 1928 11.2% 1932 14.1% 1936 14.3% 1940 12.0% 1944 13.6% 1948 12.4%

1952 10.7% 1956 9.5% 1958 12.7% 1960 13.6% 1964 13.4% 1968 16.1% 1970 19.9% 1973 25.1%

1976 24.1% 1979 18.1% 1982 15.5% 1985 12.4% 1988 11.3% 1991 8.5% 1994 7.7% 1998 5.1%

2002 6.2% 2006 7.9% 2010 6.6% 2014 6.1% 2018 8.6%

cards

Election results of the Center Party in the Reichstag election 2006 by region . The strongholds are in rural areas, in Stockholm the proportion of votes is low.

0.0 - 4.9%

5.0 - 7.9%

8.0 - 11.9%

12.0-15.9%

> 16.0%

• 

  1973 Reichstag election

• 

  1976

• 

  1979

• 

  1982

• 

  1985

• 

  1988

• 

  1991

• 

  1994

• 

  1998

• 

  2002

• 

  2006

• 

  2010

Party leader

• 1915 Gustaf Eriksson
• 1915-21 Johannes Nilsson
• 1916–19 Erik Eriksson
• 1919–24 Johan Andersson
• 1924–28 Johan Johansson
• 1929–34 Olof Olsson i Kullenbergstorp
• 1934–49 Axel Pehrsson-Bramstorp , Prime Minister 1936
• 1949-71 Gunnar Hedlund
• 1971–85 Thorbjörn Fälldin , Prime Minister 1976–78 and 1979–82
• 1986–87 Karin Söder
• 1987-98 Olof Johansson
• 1998-2001 Lennart Daléus
• 2001–2011 Maud Olofsson
• 2011– Annie Lööf

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Evert Vedung: The Swedish Five Party Syndrome and the Environmentalists. In: When Parties Fail. Emerging Alternative Organizations. Princeton University Press, Princeton 1988, pp. 76-109, at p. 85.
2. ↑ Högerhoppet - Document Inifrån  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. svt.se, no longer available  
3. ↑ Börje Hörnlund: Maud Olofssons politik en katastrof för centers Dagens Nyheter, May 7, 2009, accessed on June 18, 2012
4. ↑ Samst result hittills för Centern Svenska Dagbladet, January 20, 2013, accessed on February 15, 2013
5. ↑ Historical election statistics ( Memento of the original from July 17, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Statistiska Centralbyrån, accessed June 24, 2012  

Web links

Commons : Centerpartiet  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Official website of the Centerpartiet