| Centre Party Centerpartiet |
|
|---|---|
| Leader | Annie Lööf |
| Founded | 1913 |
| Headquarters | Stora Nygatan 4, Gamla stan, Stockholm |
| Youth wing | Centre Party Youth |
| Membership | 37,340 (2009)[1] |
| Ideology | Centrism Social liberalism Green liberalism Nordic agrarianism Left-Libertarianism |
| Political position | Centre |
| International affiliation | Liberal International |
| European affiliation | European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party |
| European Parliament Group | Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe |
| Official colors | Green |
| Parliament |
23 / 349
|
| European Parliament |
1 / 20
|
| Counties:[2] |
121 / 1,662
|
| Municipalities:[2] |
1,399 / 12,978
|
| Mayors:[2] |
36 / 290
|
| Website | |
| http://www.centerpartiet.se/ | |
| Politics of Sweden Political parties Elections |
|
The Centre Party[3] (Swedish: Centerpartiet, abbreviated C) is a centrist political party in Sweden. The party maintains close ties to rural Sweden and describes itself as "a green social liberal party".[4] The ideology is sometimes called agrarian, but in a European context, the Centre Party can perhaps best be characterized as social liberal focusing on agricultural, environmental, and rural questions. Long-term key issues have been opposition to nuclear power and proposals to decentralize governmental authority.
The party was founded in 1913 as the Farmers' League (Swedish: Bondeförbundet). In 1922 it merged with Jordbrukarnas Riksförbund (National Farmers Union). During the 1930s, the party pursued the strongest (omitting the short-lived National League of Sweden) and most notable pro-Nazi agenda, with its 1933 programme calling for "preservation of the Swedish people from any interference of foreign inferior racial elements [and] opposition of immigration to Sweden by unwanted strangers".[5] Modern party leadership has firmly condemned such associations.
The name of the party changed from Bondeförbundet in 1957. It had then been the closest ally of the Social Democrats for 25 years, and coalition partners 1936–1945 as well as 1951–1957, but has since revised this strategy in order to establish a closer long-term alliance between the centre-right (Swedish borgerlig, lit. "bourgeois" or "nonsocialist") parties, that succeeded the Social Democratic cabinets 1976–1982 and 1991–1994. The Swedish Prime Minister Torbjörn Fälldin was the leader of the Centre Party and Prime Minister in 1976-1982, excepting a short interregnum in 1978-1979 by Liberal People's Party leader Ola Ullsten.
The Centre Party joined a center-right government once again following the 1991 election, however, this government was led by the Moderate party leader Carl Bildt. The Centre party left the government in early 1994 following a decision by the Riksdag to allow the construction of the Öresund bridge, something the Centre Party opposed as they instead wanted a railway tunnel. Following this decision, the Centre Party instead started to work more closely with the Social democrats for a number of years.
In recent years however, the party has changed direction to become a more classical liberal party, which has attracted interest from voters in urban areas. In 2006 the Centerpartiet was the fastest growing party in Stockholm.
In 2005 the Centre Party sold its ownership of the newspaper group Centertidningar AB for 1.8 billion SEK,[6] thus making it the richest political party in the world.[7]
Contents |
The 2006 Swedish election was a success for the Centre Party. Their support had been slowly increasing through the past elections. In 1998, the Centre Party received 5.1% of the votes, and support increased to 6.2% in 2002.[8] In the 2006 elections, 7.88% of the vote went to the Centre Party, entitling them to 29 of the 349 seats in the Swedish Riksdag.[9] Furthermore, their alliance with the other parties in the Alliance for Sweden, a coalition which won a majority of parliament seats in this election, meant that the Centre Party shared the ministry posts with their Alliance for Sweden allies: the Moderate Party, the Liberal People's Party and the Christian Democratic Party.
Centerpartiet is a pro-immigration party, and in their campaign for the Swedish general election, 2006, they have proposed to double the number of immigrants entering Sweden to 90 000 persons, or 1 per cent of the Swedish population. This will be facilitated by issuing green cards.[10]
Centerpartiet advocates a federative model for the European Union, governed by the principle of subsidiarity. The party is against the introduction of the Euro in Sweden, and was a part of the winning no-side in the Euro referendum in 2003.
In the European Parliament Centerpartiet is part of the European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party.
Traditionally, many of the voters come from rural areas and quite a few are farmers or small businessmen. In recent years however, since the takeover of Maud Olofsson the party has been attracting liberal voters from urban areas. It is believed that voters from the Liberal People's Party have been moving to Centerpartiet due to changes in both parties.[11]
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||