Election Guide 2002 - Sweden.se

History
To begin with, our party was classically conservative
and nationalist. Liberal and internationalist ideas have
gradually gained ground. Today the Moderate Party’s
ideology is a combination of conservative social views
and liberal ideas. Its ideological stance is above all
characterised by conviction of the need for continuity,
the vision of the open society and belief in the individual
person’s freedom of choice.
Formation of the party
Right-wing and moderate groups had been formed in
both chambers of the Riksdag during the closing years
of the 19th century, but at the beginning of the 20th they
still lacked a nation-wide organisation for contacting
and informing the electorate.
The successes then gained by the Social Democrats
and Liberals in the elections to the Lower House of the
Riksdag were very much due to their having organised
themselves and thus been able to campaign more
effectively. (The Social Democratic Party had been
formed in 1889, the Liberal Coalition in 1902).
A group of right-wing MPs, led by Gustaf Fredrik
Östberg, took the initiative in forming a new party. This
took place at a meeting in Stockholm on 17th-18th
October 1904, and the party was dubbed the General
Voters’ Federation.
The main responsibility for building up the party
organisation devolved on Gustav Gustafsson, who was
really a newspaper man and had been Editor-in-Chief
of Östgöta Correspondenten.
International co-operation
The Moderate Party attaches very great importance to
international co-operation. It came out in favour of
Sweden joining the EEC (as the EU was then called)
already in 1961.
We co-operate with conservative, liberal and
Christian democratic parties from other countries
through the International Democrat Union (IDU) –
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