Centre Party (Sweden)

Centre Party
Centerpartiet
Abbreviation C
Leader and President Annie Lööf
House Leader Anders W Jonsson[1]
Founded 1913
Headquarters Stora Nygatan 4, Gamla stan, Stockholm
Youth wing Centre Party Youth
Membership 37,340 (2009)[2]
Ideology Liberalism[3]
Green liberalism
Agrarianism[4]
Political position Centre[5] to Centre-right[6]
National affiliation Alliance
European affiliation Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe
International affiliation Liberal International
European Parliament group Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe
Colors Green
Riksdag
22 / 349
European Parliament
1 / 20
County councils[7]
118 / 1,597
Municipal councils[8]
1,411 / 12,780
Website
http://www.centerpartiet.se/

The Centre Party[9] (Swedish: Centerpartiet, abbreviated C) is a liberal[10][11] and agrarian[10][11] political party in Sweden. Traditionally part of the Nordic agrarian family, the party has increasingly shifted its focus towards free market economics, environmental protection, gender equality and decentralisation of governmental authority.[12][13] The Centre Party is a member of the centre-right coalition the Alliance with the Moderate Party, Liberal Party and the Christian Democrats. The party's major issues are national economy, environment and integration and they're represented in all of the Riksdags parliamentary commités.

History

The party was founded in 1913 as the Farmers' League (Swedish: Bondeförbundet). In 1922 it merged with the National Farmers' Union (Jordbrukarnas Riksförbund). The name of the party was changed from the Farmers' League in 1957. At that time it had been the closest ally of the Swedish Social Democratic Party for 25 years, and its coalition partners between 1936 and 1945 as well as between 1951 and 1957, but it 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 achieved power between 1976 and 1982 and between 1991 and 1994. Thorbjörn Fälldin was the leader of the Centre Party and Prime Minister in 1976–1982, except a short interregnum in 1978–1979 by Liberal People's Party leader Ola Ullsten. The Centre Party again joined a centre-right government following the 1991 election led by Moderate Party leader Carl Bildt. During the leaderships of Maud Olofsson and Annie Lööf in the 2000s the party has positioned itself clearly on the political right as a small business-friendly party, leaning towards neoliberal and libertarian policies and viewing the Social Democrats as its main opponent.[6][12][14]

In 2005 the Centre Party sold its ownership of the newspaper group Centertidningar AB for 1.8 billion SEK,[15] thus making it - at the time - the richest political party in the world.[16]

2006 Election

The 2006 Swedish election was a success for the Centre Party. Its support had been slowly increasing through recent elections; in 1998 it received 5.1% of the votes, and this increased to 6.2% in 2002.[17] In the 2006 elections 7.88% of the vote went to the Centre Party (C), entitling them to 29 of the 349 seats in the Swedish Riksdag.[18] 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 Democrats. The strong victory by C in the 2006 election has been studied by political scientist Dr. Lina M. Eriksson., who in her dissertation from the Department of Government at Uppsala University, entitled "Natural Disasters and National Election", performs a rigorous statistical analysis of election data combined with interviews with Maud Olofsson, Eskil Erlandsson, Ulrica Messing and Mona Sahlin. Dr, Eriksson's research finds that both the Indian Ocean’s 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami and 2005 Storm Gudrun (Erwin), which struck only two weeks following the tsunami, are major events that impacted government popularity in the 2006 election and contributed to the redistribution of voter support, within and across party-blocs, with particularly interesting results for C. "The core findings from this thesis show that the Social Democratic (S) government’s poor crisis response to Gudrun, which is the hitherto most costly natural disaster in Swedish history, alone has an estimated effect of a magnitude that likely contributed to the 2006 historic regime shift, while the tsunami also seems to have mattered. The tsunami is particularly interesting, as S’s poor international crisis response to the event constitutes the first natural disaster situation to knowingly have affected an election on the other side of the planet. Moreover, to some degree voters recognized the active opposition by C as effective representation and rewarded the party for its strong stance on the poor handling of both events by S. In fact, the active voice of C concerning these disasters likely helped move the party from the periphery of party politics to becoming the third-largest party in Swedish politics"[19]Part of the dissertation has been published in Electoral Studies, which is to be considered the leading scientific journal in election research. In the article [20] long-term effects are also found over the 2010 and 2014 election, which implies that the Storm, in particular, triggered long-lasting changes in voter support from the left to the right side of the political spectrum. A comprehensive summary of the dissertation is available for download via Uppsala University[21]

Political opinions

National Economy

Centerpartiet has in both liberal, socialist and conservative medias been described as one of Sweden's most market liberal parties.[22] However, the party describes themselves as a party with a green, social and earthy liberalism.[23] The party leadership has many times taken distance from neoliberalism and libertarianism. The party advocates lower taxes, greatly reduced employer contributions, a freer market and an increased RUT-deductioned. The party is a big advocator for small-business, farmers and entrepreneurs.[24] They also want to invest in the infrastructure and transportation so employees could work in bigger cities but still live in the rural areas (and vice versa). On economic policy, they've described their opponents to be the Swedish Social Democratic Party and the Sweden Democrats.

Immigration

Centerpartiet is a liberal immigration party, who stands that they want to combine a generously immigration policy with an initially more restrictive contribution policy to the immigrants. After the big immigration wave in autumn 2015, the party proposed to replace the existing establishment grants with establishment loans, similar to the Swedish student loans.[25] The party is very clear with the responsibility of Sweden to receiving refugees but also the responsibility of the immigrants to establish and to become a part of the society. In January 2016 the party for example proposed to give all immigrants compulsory civic education[26] in both rights and expectations from the society.

European Union

Centerpartiet is a decentralist pro-EU party who believes that the European Union is an important union to secure peace, freedom and trade between the European countries. But the party also advocates a smaller but sharper EU[27] that focuses on democracy and peace, free movement and trade, vigorous action against climate change and collaboration against organized crime. Centerpartiet believes that Sweden should stay outside the monetary union and keep the SEK, and not shift to the Euro.[28]

In the European Parliament the Centre Party is a member of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) Party.[29] Centerpartiet MEPs, Fredrick Federley is the vicepresident of the ALDE Party[30] and the group leader of the ALDE group in the European Parliament Committee on Industry, Research and Energy.

Election results

Election year # of
overall votes		 % of
overall vote		 # of
overall seats won		 +/– Government
1914 (Sep) 1,507 0.2 (#4)
0 / 230
 0 in opposition
1917 39,262 5.3 (#5)
9 / 230
 Increase 9 in opposition
1920 52,318 7.9 (#4)
20 / 230
 Increase 11 in opposition
1921 192,269 11.0 (#4)
21 / 230
 Decrease 9 in opposition
1924 190,396 10.8 (#4)
23 / 230
 Increase 2 in opposition
1928 263,501 11.2 (#4)
27 / 230
 Increase 4 in opposition
1932 321,215 14.1 (#3)
36 / 230
 Increase 9 in opposition
1936 418,840 14.4 (#3)
36 / 230
 Steady 0 in opposition
1940 344,345 12.0 (#3)
28 / 230
 Decrease 8 in government
1944 421,094 13.6 (#3)
35 / 230
 Increase 7 in government
1948 480,421 12.4 (#3)
30 / 230
 Decrease 5 in opposition
1952 406,183 10.7 (#4)
26 / 230
 Decrease 4 in government
1956 366,612 9.5 (#4)
19 / 231
 Increase 7 in government
1958 486,760 12.7 (#4)
32 / 231
 Increase 13 in opposition
1960 579,007 13.6 (#4)
34 / 232
 Increase 2 in opposition
1964 559,632 13.2 (#4)
36 / 233
 Increase 1 in opposition
1968 757,215 15.7 (#2)
39 / 233
 Increase 3 in opposition
1970 991,208 19.9 (#2)
71 / 350
 Increase 32 in opposition
1973 1,295,246 25.1 (#2)
90 / 350
 Increase 19 in opposition
1976 1,309,669 24.1 (#2)
86 / 349
 Decrease 4 in government
1979 984,589 18.1 (#3)
64 / 349
 Decrease 22 in government
1982 859,618 15.5 (#3)
56 / 349
 Decrease 8 in opposition
1985 490,999 8.8 (#4)
43 / 349
 Decrease 13 in opposition
1988 607,240 11.3 (#4)
42 / 349
 Decrease 1 in opposition
1991 465,356 8.5 (#4)
31 / 349
 Decrease 11 in government
1994 425,153 7.7 (#3)
27 / 349
 Decrease 4 in opposition
1998 269,762 5.1 (#5)
18 / 349
 Decrease 9 in opposition
2002 328,428 6.19 (#6)
22 / 349
 Increase 4 in opposition
2006 437,389 7.88 (#3)
29 / 349
 Increase 7 in government
2010 390,804 6.56 (#5)
23 / 349
 Decrease 6 in government
2014 370,834 6.1 (#5)
22 / 349
 Decrease 1 in opposition

Voters

Centre Party election results for 2006, showing the significant focus of Centre Party support in rural areas.
  0-4.9%
  5-7.8%
  8-11.9%
  12-15.9%
  16%+

Traditionally, most of the voters and votebank come from rural areas and quite a few are farmers and agricultural producers. In recent years however, since the takeover of Maud Olofsson the party has been attracting liberal voters from urban areas in central Sweden. It is believed that voters from the Liberal People's Party have been moving to the Centre Party due to changes in both parties.[31]

Leaders of the Centre Party

The Leader of the Centre Party is the highest political and organizational officer. He or she is president in the National Executive Board and is representing the party towards media, public and other parties.[32] Often, the party leader has held and important minister portfolio when the party has been part of a coalition. The most famous leader of the Centre Party is probably Thorbjörn Fälldin, Swedens Prime Minister under the latter 70s and early 80s.

The Centre Party did also have the first female leader of a party in the Riksdag in Sweden, Karin Söder, who also where Swedens first female Minister for Foreign Affairs.

Current Members of Parliament

See also

References

  1. ↑ http://www.riksdagen.se/sv/ledamoter-partier/centerpartiet/
  2. ↑ Cederholm, Robert; Eliasson, Anders (15 March 2010). "Partierna tappar medlemmar". SVT. Archived from the original on 15 May 2011.
  3. ↑ Wolfram Nordsieck. "Parties and Elections in Europe". Retrieved 24 February 2015.
  4. ↑ David Blandford; Berkeley Hill (2006). Policy Reform and Adjustment in the Agricultural Sectors of Developed Countries. CABI. p. 110. ISBN 9781845930332.
  5. ↑ Josep M. Colomer (25 July 2008). Political Institutions in Europe. Routledge. p. 261. ISBN 978-1-134-07354-2.
  6. 1 2 "Guide: Centerpartiets historia och ideologi", DN, 2011-04-18
  7. ↑ "2014: Val till landstingsfullmäktige - Valda", Valmyndigheten, 2014-09-28
  8. ↑ "2014: Val till kommunfullmäktige - Valda", Valmyndigheten, 2014-09-26
  9. ↑ "Other languages - Centerpartiet". Centerpartiet. Archived from the original on 1 September 2013. Retrieved 24 February 2015.
  10. 1 2 Svante Ersson; Jan-Erik Lane (1998). Politics and Society in Western Europe. SAGE. p. 108. ISBN 978-0-7619-5862-8. Retrieved 17 August 2012.
  11. 1 2 Gary Marks; Carole Wilson (1999). "National Parties and the Contestation of Europe". In T. Banchoff; Mitchell P. Smith. Legitimacy and the European Union. Taylor & Francis. p. 123. ISBN 978-0-415-18188-4. Retrieved 26 August 2012.
  12. 1 2 "The Centre Party - Centerpartiet", Sveriges Radio/Radio Sweden
  13. ↑ Carina Bischoff; Marlene Wind (14 August 2015). "Sweden". In Donatella M. Viola. Routledge Handbook of European Elections. Routledge. p. 418. ISBN 978-1-317-50363-7.
  14. ↑ "'The Centre Party is a confused party': expert", The Local, 14 Jan 2013
  15. ↑ Så styckas Centertidningar - Reklam & Media - E24.se
  16. ↑ Privata Affärer - Centern blir världens rikaste politiska parti Archived 27 September 2007 at the Wayback Machine.
  17. ↑ Väljarbarometern samtliga Archived 13 September 2006 at the Wayback Machine.
  18. ↑ Allmänna val 17 september 2006
  19. ↑ http://acta.mamutweb.com/Shop/Product/0136-Natural-Disasters-and-National-Election/diva2%3A1071124%5B%5D
  20. ↑ Eriksson, Lina M. (2016). "Winds of Change: Voter Blame and Storm Gudrun in the 2006 Swedish Parliamentary Election". Electoral Studies. 41: 129. doi:10.1016/j.electstud.2015.12.003.
  21. ↑ https://uu.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:1071124/FULLTEXT01.pdf%5B%5D
  22. ↑ http://www.dn.se/nyheter/politik/centerpartiet-starkt-framat-i-ny-valjarundersokning/%5B%5D
  23. ↑ https://www.centerpartiet.se/var-politik/vara-ideer.html%5B%5D
  24. ↑ https://www.centerpartiet.se/var-politik/politik-a-o/ekonomi-och-skatter/ekonomisk-politik.html
  25. ↑ http://www.svt.se/nyheter/svtforum/c-vill-ersatta-bidrag-med-etableringslan
  26. ↑ http://www.expressen.se/debatt/infor-obligatorisk-samhallsinformation-for-nyanlanda/
  27. ↑ https://www.centerpartiet.se/var-politik/politik-a-o/europa/eu.html
  28. ↑ https://www.centerpartiet.se/var-politik/politik-a-o/europa/euron.html
  29. ↑ "ALDE Party members". Retrieved 24 February 2015.
  30. ↑ https://www.aldeparty.eu/en/about/structure/bureau
  31. ↑ "Towards a two-party system? The Swedish parliamentary election of September 2006", Nicholas Aylott and Niklas Bolin, West European Politics, 2007 forthcoming
  32. ↑ https://www.centerpartiet.se/vart-parti/kontakt/partistyrelsen.html. Missing or empty |title= (help)
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