Liberalerna

Liberalerna The Liberals
Party leader	Nyamko Sabuni
Secretary General	Nina Larsson
vice-chairman	Helene Odenjung , Erik Ullenhag
founding	August 5, 1934
Headquarters	Stockholm
Youth organization	Liberala ungdomsförbundet (LUF)
Alignment	Liberalism Economic liberalism
Colours)	Dark blue, orange
Parliament seats	20/349
Number of members	18,100
International connections	Liberal International (LI)
MEPs	1/21
European party	ALDE
EP Group	RE
Website	www.liberalerna.se

Liberalerna (short L ; German Die Liberalen ; until 2015 Folkpartiet liberalerna , "People's Party The Liberals") are a party represented in the Swedish Reichstag . In the most recent Reichstag election in 2018, it achieved 5.5 percent of the vote and 20 of 349 seats. From 2006 to 2014 she participated in the Swedish government as part of the Alliance for Sweden . The liberals are economically liberal and decidedly pro-European .

history

Precursor, division, merger

The party has its roots in older liberal currents that advocated democratization of the Swedish political system. In 1900, several parliamentary groups united in the Liberal Collection Party , which in 1902 created a nationwide electoral organization with the Liberal Association (Frisinnade Landsföreningen) . The liberal governments under Karl Staaff campaigned for a reform of parliament and electoral law, which could be implemented by a social democratic-liberal government coalition under Nils Edén in 1920.

After the successful struggle against the privileges of the upper class and monarchical powers, a certain void of content emerged. In addition, the liberal movement has been weakened by different positions on alcohol policy. In 1923 the Liberal Association broke up: the majority supported the abstinence movement and called the Liberal People's Party (Frisinnade Folkpartiet) into being; a minority spoke out against a general ban on alcohol and gathered in the Liberal Party (Sveriges liberala parti) , which was mainly based in the cities. Both parties formed the first government of Carl Gustaf Ekman from 1926 to 1928 .

Folkpartiet

It was not until 1934 that the two directions reunited under the name Folkpartiet (German People's Party). The new party adopted a liberal market program and attacked the socialization efforts of the social democrats . After the outbreak of World War II , the party belonged to the collection government under Per Albin Hansson from December 13, 1939 . It was less friendly to Germany than the other parties.

Ohlin era 1944–1967

Bertil Ohlin , late 1950s.

Under party chairman Bertil Ohlin , market and social liberal approaches were balanced. The economics professor Ohlin advocated an active financial policy in the sense of Keynesianism . However, the market economy had to be resolutely defended. Since the late 1940s, the Folkpartiet, together with the other bourgeois parties and representatives of the economy, opposed the planned economy initiatives of the Social Democrats. The rising taxes in particular were attacked, the tax burden, criticized as being too high, restricts the freedom of the individual and burdens the economy as a whole. In 1948 , this line of the party resulted in a significant increase in votes. In 1952 and 1956 , too , it was the largest opposition party.

With the growing prosperity of the 1950s and Sweden's successes in combating poverty , the party launched the term bottentrygghet (basic security). The state should only provide basic security for its citizens, but otherwise leave it up to him to decide which insurance, savings models, etc. he prefers. This counter-position to the social democratic vision of the “strong society” (Det starka samhället) was based on the socio-political traditions of the liberals since Adolf Hedin and the 1880s: State welfare should not benefit the well-organized interest groups, but only the weakest in society. For them, Ohlin coined the term Det glömda Sverige (The forgotten Sweden) as early as 1937 . This resulted in a substantive closeness to the conservatives , which one tried to hit with the accusation of unsocial cold-heartedness.

The party suffered defeat in the central controversy of the late 1950s, whether the supplementary public service pensions should be extended to all occupational groups. At first, the coalition of the Social Democrats and the Farmers' Union was broken on this question. In the new elections in 1958 , which had now become necessary , the party, which was not very constructive, clearly lost votes, probably also because the liberal newspapers Dagens Nyheter and Expressen had previously urged a compromise search with the government. Nevertheless, the negotiations were broken off in 1959. The liberal MP Ture Koenigson then announced that he would abstain from voting so as not to let the social democratic pension reform fail. On March 13, 1959, the law passed the Second Chamber of the Reichstag with a majority of one vote.

Position determinations

After this setback, the party sought a merger with the Center Party (formerly the Bauernbund) to form a strong centrist alternative to Social Democrats and Conservatives. However, the center rejected this idea. The question of government participation was controversial in the 1970s. Social-liberal cooperation based on the West German model found support only in a minority. The majority of the members hoped for a bourgeois coalition. The party and parliamentary group chairman, Gunnar Helén , succeeded in establishing an economic and financial policy agreement with the center and conservatives.

In 1972 a new party program was passed. On paper it was a clear turn to the left. In keeping with the zeitgeist, state control was advocated, where market-economy principles created private power concentrations, environmental pollution and economic imbalances. The voters did not honor the contradicting signals. In the 1973 Reichstag election , the Liberals lost significantly. There was a stalemate in the Reichstag. As a result, the liberals sought selective cooperation with the social democratic minority government Olof Palme . It was only under the new party chairman Per Ahlmark that there was a stronger demarcation to the left.

Participation in government between 1976 and 1982

In 1976 the bourgeois parties gained a majority in parliament. The party participated in the Fälldin government . After the collapse of this government, Ola Ullsten formed a purely liberal minority government on October 18, 1978 , which remained in office until the 1979 election . It was then replaced by a second Fälldin coalition government. After the disastrous outcome of the 1982 election , Bengt Westerberg took over the party chairmanship. The party stuck to its civic assignment and celebrated a clear election victory on September 15, 1985 .

Folkpartiet liberalerna (People's Party The Liberals)

In 1990 the party name was supplemented with the addition Liberalerna (The Liberals). The basic program from the same year emphasized individual freedoms without giving up the traditional welfare state line. In practice, however, this became increasingly less important. The Liberals appeared increasingly as a business-friendly party. From 1991 to 1994 they belonged to the bourgeois coalition government Carl Bildt . This allowed itself to be tolerated by the right-wing populist Ny democracy , which Bengt Westerberg did not prevent from sharp attacks against them. In 1994 he negotiated with the Social Democrats to form a government. After his failure, he gave up the party leadership.

The 1998 election brought the party dangerously close to the four percent threshold. In the election on September 15, 2002 , she was able to almost triple her vote. In the previous election campaign she had called for immigrants to take a language test in order to obtain Swedish citizenship. This earned the Liberals the charge of fishing in murky waters. Party chairman Lars Leijonborg replied that a racist who votes for the party must be "stupid in the head".

Since 2004 the party has been part of the bourgeois electoral alliance Allianz led by the moderates . In 2006 the Liberals suffered heavy losses. One possible cause was seen in the fact that some leading party members of the party had gained access to the Social Democrats' internal computer network and thus to a number of internal documents. Nevertheless, on October 6, 2006, he returned to the government.

Liberalerna

On November 22, 2015, the party changed its name to Liberalerna by acclamation . The party leadership saw this as an obvious step in a renewal process, at the end of which a “liberal reform agenda for the future” stands. Some proponents of the name change also hoped to distance themselves from the currently successful populist currents in Europe, e.g. B. the Dansk Folkeparti .

Election results

Reichstag elections

Share of votes of the People's Party / The Liberals in the 2014 Reichstag election by municipalities.

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

1936 12.9% 1940 12.0% 1944 12.9% 1948 22.8% 1952 24.4% 1956 23.8% 1958 18.2% 1960 17.5%

1964 17.1% 1968 15.0% 1970 16.2% 1973 9.4% 1976 11.1% 1979 10.6% 1982 5.9% 1985 14.2%

1988 12.2% 1991 9.1% 1994 7.2% 1998 4.7% 2002 13.4% 2006 7.5% 2010 7.1% 2014 5.4%

2018 5.5%

European elections

In the 2009 European elections , the Liberals defended their position as the third largest party. Most commentators attributed the election success to the popularity of the top candidate Marit Paulsen and the party's resolutely pro-European profile. Olle Schmidt and Cecilia Wikström were also elected . In 2014 , only Paulsen and Wikström were able to defend their mandates after the party had suffered significant losses. In the 2019 European elections , Liberalerna then lost half of its share of the vote, so only the new top candidate Karin Karlsbro entered the European Parliament.

1995 4.8% - 1 mandate 1999 13.9% - 3 mandates 2004 9.9% - 2 mandates 2009 13.6% - 3 mandates 2014 9.9% - 2 mandates 2019 4.1% - 1 mandate

Party leader

• 1934–1935 Felix Hamrin , Prime Minister 1932
• 1935–1944 Gustaf Andersson
• 1944–1967 Bertil Ohlin
• 1967–1969 Sven Wedén
• 1969–1975 Gunnar Helén
• 1975–1978 Per Ahlmark
• 1978–1983 Ola Ullsten , Prime Minister 1978–1979
• 1983–1995 Bengt Westerberg
• 1995–1997 Maria Leissner
• 1997-2007 Lars Leijonborg
• 2007–2019 Jan Björklund
• since 2019 Nyamko Sabuni

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Requirements must be met, finds the FP (Swedish) Sveriges Radio, August 24, 2002, accessed on July 7, 2012
2. ↑ Finally - in the center (swedish)  ( 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. Aftonbladet, September 5, 2002; accessed July 7, 2012  
3. ↑ January Björklund: Folkpartiet byter namn till Liberal Erna Dagens Nyheter, November 17, 2015.
4. ↑ Tobias Brandel: Klart: Folkpartiet heter nu Liberalerna Svenska Dagbladet, November 22, 2015.
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 

literature

• Mats Bäck, Tommy Möller: Partier och organizer. 7th edition. Stockholm 2003, ISBN 91-39-10613-6 .

Web links

• Liberalerna Official Website