Everything about Christian Democrats Sweden totally explained
The
Christian Democrats (abbreviated
kd) is a
political party in
Sweden. The party was founded in
1964 but didn't enter parliament until
1985 in an electoral cooperation with the
Centre Party and on their own accord in
1991. The leader since
April 3 2004 is
Göran Hägglund. He succeeded
Alf Svensson, who had been the party's leader since
1973. The three most important issues for the party are:
- Improving the care for elderly
- Freedom of choice for families with children in selecting their childcare
- Decreasing regulations on companies, lowering taxes to promote growth and combat unemployment
The party name was for a long time abbreviated
KDS until 1996, when the new abbreviation became
KD as the name changed from the
Christian Democratic Social Party to the
Christian Democrats.
History
Reasons for founding the party
The party had its roots in a movement against the Swedish government's decision in 1963 to remove religious education from the elementary school syllabus. The organisation called "
Christian Social Responsibility" that would later become the Christian Democratic Unity organised several marches against the decision, one of which became one of the largest in Swedish modern history. Despite the public outcry and over 2.1 million protest signatures, the decision went through. The group which had worked in the campaign felt it was a sign that Swedish politics needed a Christian Democratic Party.
It should be noted the political and social origins of the Swedish Christian Democracy clearly differs from those of the European continental Christian Democratic parties (like in
Italy or
West Germany). In those countries, Christian Democracy represented the mainstream of the social-conservative political forces and was closely tied to majoritarian religious practice. In, Sweden Christian Democracy surged as minority grouping amongst the center-right forces and was tied to religious minority tendencies in society (the Free Churches).
The founding
In the beginning 1964
Lewi Pethrus, founder of the Swedish
Pentecostal movement and chief editor of the Swedish newspaper
Dagen, discussed the idea of a Swedish Christian democratic party on the editorial pages of
Dagen. He stated that many people had contacted him about the idea, and that the current Swedish political climate was dominated by atheist
economic materialism.
Principal Algot Terel hosted a conference in
February 7 the same year. The topic of the conference was "Christianity and Politics", and during the conference the idea of starting a Christian Democratic Party was discussed. A committee consisting of Lewi Pethrus and 8 other Free Church leaders was formed.
A large and widespread debate followed this decision to create a commitée.
Dagen published an interview with the leader of the Norwegian
Christian Democratic Party Kjell Bondevik and there were talks about creating a Christian Democratic Party in Finland as well.
On
March 20 1964 the party was founded as the
Christian Democratic Unity (
Kristen Demokratisk Samling). At first it was only an organisation, but at a board meeting later that year it was decided the organisation would be revamped into a party and that it would run for the
national elections in Sweden. The first roughly 100 members elected
Birger Ekstedt to the post of party chairman and Lewi Pethrus to the post of vice chairman.
Then began the intensive work of spreading the party all over the nation and preparing the necessary infrastructure in preparation for the elections. The party grew rapidly, by the end of the year it had 14 500 members.
The early start
The party was sometimes called the "Air and Water" party at a start because of the party's strong emphasis on environmental politics. At that time the
Green Party of Sweden didn't exist and thus the Christian Democratic Unity had a unique position with its environmentally friendly politics. In the Swedish national elections in 1964 the party gained 1,8%, not enough to get any seats in the
riksdag, but the party already gained influence on the municipal level. In the municipal elections of 1966, the party gained 354 seats.
At this time the established major parties of Sweden began discussing new ways of prohibiting minor parties in Sweden from getting into the riksdag. In 1971 the riksdag was reformed, and with it came the
D'Hondt method of voting. The threshold was set to 4%, which meant that the political breakthrough was far away for the KDS.
In 1972, the 51 year old Birger Ekstedt died only a few days after having been reelected as the party chairman. An emergency congress was called, and the relatively unknown chairman of the
youth-wing of the party was elected chairman. His name was
Alf Svensson, and he later became one of the most important figures in modern Swedish politics. In the national elections in 1973 the party gained the same result as the two preceding elections, 1,8%.
Before the national elections in 1976 there was a strong call for a change to a right-wing government in Sweden. The organisation "Vote right-wing" was formed to promote the change to a right-wing government. The KDS however announced they didn't want to be placed on the traditional right-wing/left-wing scale, a measurement system they felt was outdated. Therefore, the Vote right-wing organisation started a campaign of negative campaigning against the KDS with the slogan "Don't vote for KDS, don't throw away your vote" as the KDS party hadn't climbed the 4% threshold the last elections. The effects of a large campaign on a small and relatively new party like the KDS was disastrous, and the party only gained 1.4% of the votes in the election.
In the beginning of the 1980s, the party revamped their entire political manifesto. The party abandoned its conservative stance on abortion and instead assumed a moderate pro-choice stance and stated they wanted to work to lower the total amount of abortions in Sweden through preventive measures instead. In the 1980
Nuclear power referendums they party supported the "no" campaign, which meant a no to any further construction of new nuclear power-plants in Sweden and the phase-out of all nuclear power plants in Sweden within 10 years complete with increased investments in
alternative energy.
In 1982 the
Christian Democratic Women's league was founded and the party gained 1.9% of the votes, for the first getting more than 100 000 votes.
The way into the riksdag
As early as 1978 the KDS discussed the idea of electoral cooperation with the
Centre Party. Similar ideas were discussed before the 1982 elections, but were never put into action. One of the proponents of such a collaboration was the then secretary of information
Mats Odell. The party now officially took a stance against a socialist government, which effectively put them together with the right-wing block.
The negotiations were bumpy but finally in 1984 the Centre Party and KDS agreed to run under a joint banner in next years elections under the name "The Centre".
The deal, which was heavily criticised by the
Swedish Social Democratic Party, meant that each party had their own voting ticket but Centre Party should nominate a Christian Democratic candidate on at least 5 of the regional candidacy lists. There was no doubt that the Centre Party ticket would win over the KDS ticket almost everywhere, but this way there would be at least 5 Christian democrats in the riksdag. The Centre Party didn't live up to the promise however, and only in the municipality of
Kalmar did they put a Christian Democrat on the list. This resulted in great tensions within the party and one of the party icons, the environmental proponent Björn Gillberg left the party. Alf Svensson however, managed to get into the riksdag through the KDS party ticket in
Jönköping.
The real breakthrough
In 1987 the party manifesto was revamped once again (although not as heavily as the last time) and the party changed its name to
Christian Democratic Social Party (
Kristdemokratiska Samhällspartiet), while keeping the
KDS abbreviation. In the 1988 national elections the party grew significantly and gained 2.8% of the votes. But the Centre Party didn't want any further electoral cooperation and the KDS MP had to leave the riksdag. Something had happened however. The party was now recognised as one of the major parties in Sweden, and Alf Svensson had become famous. According to many polls, he was in fact the most popular politician in the entire nation.
Several famous people joined the party and in the right-wing breakthrough national elections of 1991 the party grew explosively yet again and gained over 7% of the votes. The right-wing bloc gained a majority and the KDS formed government with the right-wing bloc. Several Christian Democrats got positions within the new government; Alf Svensson as the minister of foreign aid (and vice foreign minister),
Inger Davidson as minister of civilian infrastructure and Mats Odell as minister of communications.
After the right-wing bloc lost the 1994 elections, the KDS managed to stay in the riksdag and had assumed a permanent position within Swedish national politics. In 1996 the party changed its name to the current form,
Christian Democrats (
Kristdemokraterna), changing the abbreviation form to
KD. The party believed this would help deter the belief that it was a religious party. In 1998 the party had its best elections ever, gaining over 11% of the votes, it established itself as the 4th largest party in Sweden, becoming larger than their former electoral partner the Centre Party. In the 2002 national elections the party got less votes but still held on to its position as the 4th largest party.
In 2004, the famous Alf Svensson stepped down in favor of his long designated successor
Göran Hägglund.
At the end of 2005, the party had 24 202 confirmed members making it the 4th largest party in size as well. It's one of the few parties in Sweden not continuously losing a lot of members. The Christian Democrats are represented in almost every municipality and region in Sweden.
In the Alliance cabinet
As a member of the winning side in the
Swedish general election, 2006, the
Alliance for Sweden, the Christian Democrats got three minister posts in the
Cabinet of Fredrik Reinfeldt. Unlike the
Moderate Party and the
Liberal People's Party the Christian Democrats and the
Centre Party avoided scandals for personal conduct and accusations for espionage against the competing
Swedish Social Democratic Party, so the minister posts were originally and are still held by the party leader
Göran Hägglund,
Mats Odell and
Maria Larsson.
However,
Göran Hägglund have been criticised by the internal KD opinion for deviating from the party policies regarding womens right to abortion, where Hägglund headstrongly defends the womens rights in accord with the common Swedish opinion, while the party opposes it in accord with common
Christian Right opinions. The Alliance cabinets inhuman stance against unemployed and sick-listed have been heavily criticised by former party leader
Alf Svensson, while the
moderate Sven-Otto Littorin went into aggressive counter attack, but the Christian Democratic ministers were silent..
Current opinion polls in Sweden indicates steadily less popular support for the KD conservative stance against Homosexual marriages and anti-abortion stance, while the main stream Christianity in Sweden open the doors for such liberal interpretations of theology and adherence to popular opinion. The opinion polls for KD have wobbled around the 4 percent limit of the Swedish parliament since March 2007.
Voter base
Ideologically it's a right
Christian Democrat party, having a big part of their voter base among those who belong to
evangelical denominations, known in Sweden as
free churches -
Pentecostals,
Methodists,
Baptists, etc. These churches have many followers in
Småland, which is the region where the party is strongest. Other important voter groups are senior citizens and young families. The Party's political message has been called "neo-liberalism with a human face" mirroring the fact that market liberalism constitutes a central part of the Swedish Christian Democrats program.
The party is a member of the
European People's Party (EPP).
Christian Democratic Politicians
Party chairman
Vice chairman
This list isn't yet complete.
Second vice chairman
This list isn't yet complete.
Party secretary
Group leader in the riksdag
Other famous Christian democrats
Peter Althin, MP and judicial spokesman
Jerzy Einhorn, cancer researcher and MP 1991-1994
Gert Fylking
Bror Stefenson, Chairman of the Christian Democratic Senior League
Anders Wijkman, MEP
Johan DeFarfalla, former Opeth bassist
Affiliated organisations
Christian Democratic Youth League
Christian Democratic Student League
Christian Democratic Senior League
Christian Democratic Women's league
The foundation Civitas
Study organisation Framtidsbildarna
Election results
| Year |
1964 |
1966 |
1968 |
1970 |
1973 |
1976 |
1979 |
1982 |
1985 |
1988 |
1991 |
1994 |
1998 |
2002 |
2006 |
| National elections |
1,8% |
* |
1,5% |
1,80% |
1,75% |
1,36% |
1,39% |
1,87% |
2,6%** |
2,94% |
7,14% |
4,1% |
11,77% |
9,15% |
6,6% |
| Regional Elections |
* |
1,8% |
* |
1,9% |
2,1% |
1,9% |
2,0% |
2,4% |
2,0% |
3,1% |
7,0% |
3,7% |
10,0% |
8,2% |
6,6% |
| Municipal Elections |
* |
* |
* |
1,8% |
2,1% |
2,0% |
2,1% |
2,4% |
2,0% |
2,8% |
5,8% |
3,2% |
8,0% |
7,1% |
5,8% |
* - This type of election didn't occur this year because of the electoral system.
** - The Christian Democrats stood on a joint list with the Centre Party, and thus no separate election results. The number supplied is the number of tickets with Christian Democratic candidates that were voted with under the common name.
Literature
Niels Arbøl, Kristdemokraterna en världsrörelse (Samhällsgemenskap, 1986) ISBN 91-85036-22-6
Cecilia Hjort Attefall, Partiet som lyfte: 40 år med svensk kristdemokrati: 1964-2004 (Samhällsgemenskap, 2004) ISBN 91-85036-52-8
Birger Ekstedt, KDS - en politisk nödvändighet (Samhällsgemenskap, 1970)
Göran V. Johansson, Kristen Demokrati På Svenska (Liber, 1985) ISBN 91-40-05103-X
Erik Lindfeldt, Moralpartiet. En bok om KdS (Carlssons, 1991) ISBN 91-7798-433-1
Bernt Olsson, Upprinnelsen - Om Kristdemokraternas första tid i Sverige (Samhällsgemenskap, 2004) ISBN 91-85036-56-0
Allan Sandström, KDS - Partiet bakom fromhetsvallen (LT, 1979) ISBN 91-36-01329-3
Alf Svensson, I Tiden, från motvind till uppvindar (Samhällsgemenskap, 1984) ISBN 91-85036-10-2
Kristdemokratisk Debatt (paper published by the party between 1992-2003) ISSN 1103-1522Further Information
Get more info on 'Christian Democrats Sweden'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://christian_democrats__sweden.totallyexplained.com">Christian Democrats (Sweden) Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
