Swedish general election, 1979

Swedish general election, 1979

← 1976 16 September 1979 1982 →
All 349 seats to the Riksdag 175 seats were needed for a majority
First party Second party Third party   Leader Olof Palme Gösta Bohman Thorbjörn Fälldin Party Social Democratic Moderate Centre Last election 152 55 86 Seats won 154 73 64 Seat change 2 18 22 Popular vote 2,356,234 1,108,406 984,589 Percentage 43.2% 20.3% 18.1%   Fourth party Fifth party   Leader Ola Ullsten Lars Werner Party People's Left-Communist Last election 39 17 Seats won 38 20 Seat change 1 3 Popular vote 577,063 305,420 Percentage 10.6% 5.6%
PM before election Ola Ullsten Liberal People's Elected PM Thorbjörn Fälldin Centre

Ola Ullsten
Liberal People's

Thorbjörn Fälldin
Centre

General elections were held in Sweden on 16 September 1979. Although the Swedish Social Democratic Party remained the largest party, winning 154 of the 349 seats in the Riksdag, the liberal interim government of Ola Ullsten was succeeded by another centre-right coalition government composed of the People's Party, the Moderate Party and the Centre Party, led by Centre Party leader Thorbjörn Fälldin. The three parties together won 175 seats, compared to the 174 won by the Social Democrats and Communists. It was the only time that non-socialist parties retained power in an election between 1928 and 2010. The Moderates dramatically increased their representation in the Riksdag, becoming the largest party of the non-socialist bloc, a position they have maintained ever since.

Despite the unexpected victory, the coalition split in 1981 when the Moderates withdrew support in protest at Fälldin's tax policies, which they viewed as "too leftist". Despite not being the leader of the coalition party with the most seats, Fälldin had been the designate Prime Minister since his earlier resignation in 1978, upon disagreement over the question of nuclear power.

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.

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