Election Guide 2002 - Sweden.se

chaired by Carl Bildt – and the European Democrat
Union (EDU). Following Sweden’s accession to the EU,
the party is also a member of the European People’s Party
(EPP). The five Moderate MEPs belong to the EPP group
in the European Parliament.
Election results
In Sweden’s first general election with universal male
and female suffrage, to the Lower House of the Riksdag
in 1921, the party polled 25.8% of the votes. The record
came in 1928, with 29.4% of the votes cast, and the
figure in 1970 was an all-time low, 11.6%. At the last
parliamentary election, in 1998, we polled 22.9%, and
in the European Parliament election in 1995 we polled
23.2%.
Changes of name
In 1938 the party changed its name from the General
Voters’ Federation to the National Organisation of the
Right, and from 1952 onwards it styled itself the Right
Party. We have been called the Moderate Party since 1969.
Growing success
The election victory of 1928 was followed by a long
period of electoral reverses, ending with the 1952
election, by which time Jarl Hjalmarson had become
Party Chairman. Hjalmarson’s time (1950-61) was one
of renewal in terms of both party policy and election
successes.
A basically conservative view coupled with determined
and ideological opposition of the planned economy ideas
of the post-war era found the party an important role
in the political developments of the 1950s. The party
put forward proposals which would enable people to be
independent and manage their own financial affairs.
“Ownership democracy” was the name given to the
party’s model for spreading ownership of business
enterprise to the general public, as distinct from the
Social Democratic policy of concentrating ownership.
The party protested against the successive increase
in the pressure of taxation begun by the Social Democratic
government during the 1950s.
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