Politics
Political parties are strong in Sweden, with members of the Riksdag usually supporting their parties in parliamentary votes. In most cases, governments can command the support of the majority in the Riksdag, allowing the government to control the parliamentary agenda.
For many years, no single political party in Sweden has managed to gain more than 50% of the votes, so political parties with similar agendas cooperate on several issues, forming coalition governments or other formalized alliances. Currently, two major blocs exist in parliament, the socialist/green Red-Greens and the conservative/liberal Alliance for Sweden. The latter, consisting of the Moderate Party, the Liberal People's Party, the Centre Party and the Christian Democrats, governs Sweden since 2006 - since 2010 through a minority government. The Red-Greens were disbanded on 26 October 2010 but is still considered to be the main opposition. The Sweden Democrats party is not a member of any of these blocs, although they often support the Alliance in their decisions according to Tidningarnas Telegrambyrå, TT.
| Parties1 | Leaders | Seats2 | Votes3 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Social Democratic Party | Stefan Löfven4 | 112 | 30.66% | |
| Moderate Party | Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt | 107 | 30.06% | |
| Green Party | Åsa Romson and Gustav Fridolin | 25 | 7.34% | |
| Liberal People's Party | Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Education Jan Björklund | 24 | 7.06% | |
| Center Party | Minister for Enterprise Annie Lööf | 23 | 6.56% | |
| Sweden Democrats | Jimmie Åkesson | 20 | 5.70% | |
| Christian Democratic Party | Minister for Health and Social Affairs Göran Hägglund | 19 | 5.60% | |
| Left Party | Jonas Sjöstedt | 19 | 5.60% | |
| Total | 349 | 98.58% | ||
| Government Minority | 2 | 0.02% | ||
Read more about this topic: Parliament Of Sweden
Famous quotes containing the word politics:
“All you can be sure about in a political-minded writer is that if his work should last you will have to skip the politics when you read it. Many of the so-called politically enlisted writers change their politics frequently.... Perhaps it can be respected as a form of the pursuit of happiness.”
—Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961)
“The so-called consumer society and the politics of corporate capitalism have created a second nature of man which ties him libidinally and aggressively to the commodity form. The need for possessing, consuming, handling and constantly renewing the gadgets, devices, instruments, engines, offered to and imposed upon the people, for using these wares even at the danger of one’s own destruction, has become a “biological” need.”
—Herbert Marcuse (1898–1979)
“If politics is the art of the possible, research is surely the art of the soluble. Both are immensely practical-minded affairs.”
—Peter B. Medawar (1915–1987)