Liberal People's Party (Sweden)
The
Liberal Party of Sweden (in
Swedish:
Folkpartiet liberalerna, abbreviated
fp, meaning
People's Party the Liberals) is a
political party in
Sweden. The party advocates
social liberalism and is considered center-right in
Swedish politics. It is the third largest party in the
Swedish parliament and currently is in the opposition bloc.
1809: The first liberal party is formed after a coup-d'êtat ends royal autocracy; it is possibly the first party in the world to use the word "liberal" in its name.
1890: The Swedish League for Universal Suffrage is formed and is dominated by liberals.
1895: "Folkpartiet" (
The People's Party/
The Popular Party), a liberal/radical party is formed; it has the same name as the present party.
1900:
The Liberal Party is formed by merging several liberal parliamentary groups.
1902: "Frisinnade Landsföreningen" (loosely translatable as
The Free-spirited National Association") is formed as the first liberal party with a national grass-roots organization. It is heavily reliant on the "free religious" church movement.
1905:
Karl Staaff is elected party chairperson and takes part in a coalition government, where he promotes universal suffrage and a peaceful end to Swedish sovereignty over
Norway.
1905-07: Karl Staaff appointed prime minister. Weighted suffrage for men is introduced despite heavy opposition from conservatives.
1911: Staaff is once again appointed prime minister.
1914: Staaff resigns in protest after the king
Gustav V has criticised the government's
pacifist stance in a speech to anti-liberal farmers gathered in the courtyard of
Stockholm Palace (
The Courtyard Crisis). Sweden however remains neutral during the
first world war.
1917-20: Party chairperson
Nils Edén heads a Liberal-Social Democrat coalition government that introduces
democracy to Sweden, granting full and equal suffrage to men and women alike, effective in the 1921 elections. Other reforms include the eight hour working day.
1923: "Frisinnade Landsföreningen" splits over alcohol prohibition; the anti-ban minority forms
Liberal Party of Sweden. "Frisinnade Landsföreningen" heads several governments during the following years.
|
1936 election poster. The poster reads: "Away with all forms of dictatorship aspirations. Vote with Folkpartiet." |
1934: The parties reconcile and form "Folkpartiet" (
The People's/Popular Party), i.e. the party in its present form.
1939-45: Parttakes in a wartime coalition government comprising all parties except the Communists. Sweden sticks to neutrality during the second world war.
1976: Enters a three-party government ending 44 years of Social Democrat rule (excepting the wartime emergency grand coalition).
1978: The Liberal Party forms a short-lived minority government by itself, with chairperson
Ola Ullsten as prime minister.
Hans Blix, of later Iraq-war fame, is foreign minister.
1979: A new attempt at a three-part coalition is made.
1980: Forms a two-party coalition government with the
Centre party.
1990: Adds "Liberalerna" (
The Liberals) to its name.
1991-94: Part of four-party coalition government under Conservative leader
Carl Bildt.
The official party ideology is "social liberalism", which translates as a strong ideological commitment to a
free-market economy combined with support for comprehensive
social welfare programs. In the party platform the party calls for "social responsibility without
socialism."
While initially allied with the
Social Democrats in the struggle for democracy (achieved in 1921) and social reform, the Liberal Party came to be part of the opposition from the thirties and onwards, opposing Social Democrat demands for
nationalization of private businesses. It has stayed opposed to the Social Democrats ever since, often as the largest or second-largest party of the opposition block (called
the non-socialists or "de borgerliga", approximately
the bourgeois), but often equally critical towards parties on the right. Over time, this has shifted towards a more clear-cut rightwing role. In the mid-nineties, the party seemed to have ruled out the alternative of co-operation with the Social Democrats, focusing instead on bringing them down by strengthening the opposition.
Foreign aid and women's equality were very important issues for the party in the past, and today the party advocates "liberal
feminism" and giving a full percent of the gross national income as foreign aid (presently Sweden gives 0,7%, one of few countries to uphold the UN's demand to do so).
Foreign policy is another high-profile issue. Always oriented towards the
United States and the
UK, the party was a strong opponent of
Communism and
Nazism during the 20th century. While it was part of and supported the Swedish coalition government and its position of
neutrality during the
Second world war, the party advocated an active stance against the
Soviet Union during the
Cold war. The party (alongside
Moderaterna) actively supported the struggle of Baltic peoples against the Soviet regime, whereas Social Democrats were wary of irritating the Soviets.
[Ett liv för Baltikum : journalistiska memoarer. - Stockholm : Timbro, 2002. - 351 s. : ill. - ISBN 91-7566-530-1] As a consequence, it suffered several sharply worded rebukes from the often-ruling Social Democrats for endangering Swedish relations to the Soviet Union. It also criticised what it perceived as Social Democrat tolerance of left wing dictatorships in the third world, and supported the United States in the
Vietnam war. After the end of the Cold war it became the first Swedish party to call for abandoning the country's traditional neutrality, in favor of joining
NATO.
In third world issues, the party supported
decolonization and advocated boycotting
South Africa to help overthrow
Apartheid rule. It also opposed third world Communist dictatorships. Nowadays, it is strongly supportive of
Israel.
On the European level, the Liberal Party of Sweden was strongly supportive of the emergence of the
European Union, and campaigned for Swedish entry into it (which happened in
1995). It also campaigned for joining the
Economic and Monetary Union of the European Union, but this was voted down by the Swedes in a
referendum in
2004. The party has aimed to come across as the most "pro-European" party, trying to break what it refers to as the country's "isolationist" mindset. It is supportive of
EU enlargement, including letting
Turkey join on condition of democratic reforms, and also advocates further integrative measures, with some members, including the youth organization, openly calling for a single federal European state.
Recently, the Liberal Party of Sweden supported the invasion of
Iraq, but stopped short of demanding Swedish participation in the US-led "
coalition of the willing".
The party voter base is mainly centered on educated
middle-class voters.
Historically the party had a strong base in the 'free churches' (Protestant congregations not part of the state church that turned into powerful grass-roots movements in the late 19th century), but with the exception of certain regions, that is not a significant feature today. Tensions between factions sometimes described as "the free religionists" and "the metropolitan liberals" (occasionally in the form of an open left-right conflict, with the "free religious" members emphasizing the social aspect over liberal economics) was an important part of party life up until the seventies. It provoked a party split in the twenties, centered on the question of an alcohol ban, but differences were eventually repaired (the re-merging of the parties in
1934 is one of the party's plethora of official creation dates, some others being
1895,
1900 and
1902, providing frequent cause for anniversary celebrations).
Since 2002 the party has been accused of trying to attract new voters by adopting right-wing populist rhetoric, although the party also proposes to open Sweden's doors to economic migrants and to additional asylum seekers. Party leader Lars Leijonborg proposed a language test for immigrants who applied for Swedish citizenship. However, proficiency in the national language is not a particularly unusual requirement for citizenship of a country. Recently, the party's education spokesman and first deputy chairman Jan Björklund has called on schoolteachers to report schoolchildren with extreme opinions to the intelligence services, something which has caused opposition from within the party, not least from the youth league. It has campaigns strongly against terrorism and criminality. While these tactics may have helped to more than double party support in the 2002 elections (to 13.3%), they have also provoked accusations of betraying liberal ideology from within leftist factions of the party, and led to criticism from the strong liberal press in Sweden. However, the party, which has historically been the most pro-immigration Swedish party, has also proposed measures intended to make it easier for foreigners to visit relatives living in Sweden, and to ease restrictions on economic migrants, for which it has been opposed by the governing
Social Democrats. In its
policy on integration, the party claims to support more open immigration combined with measures to help new arrivals to integrate into Swedish society. It also publicly distanced itself from an anti-immigration campaign by its Danish sister party
Venstre, and rejected an endorsement from the far-right
Swedish Democrats.
The Liberal Party of Sweden has a youth organization called
Liberal Youth League (Liberala ungdomsförbundet, LUF), which has its own platform and maintains a separate organization from the party. Its chairperson is
Fredrik Malm.
There is also a Women's organization called
Liberal Women (Liberala Kvinnor, LK, chairperson
Helena Bargholtz) and immigrants' organization called Liberala invandrarförbundet, LIF, (
Liberal Immigrants' Association, chairperson
Farrokh Farrokhi). Additionally, party members maintain a number of small ad hoc "networks" addressing specific issues.
In the
European Parliament, Folkpartiet is a member of the
European Liberal, Democrat and Reform Party group, and internationally it is member of the
Liberal International. It is also part of Liberal organizations on the
Nordic and
Baltic levels.
Election results by year, not including pre-1934 history:
*
Gustav Andersson of Rasjön (1935)
*
Bertil Ohlin (1944)
*
Sven Wedén (1967)
*
Gunnar Helén (1969)
*
Per Ahlmark (1975)
*
Ola Ullsten (1978, prime minister
1978-
1979)
*
Bengt Westerberg (1983)
*
Maria Leissner (1995)
*
Lars Leijonborg (1997, current leader)
*
Alliance for Sweden*
Liberalism and centrism in Sweden*
Folkpartister i Svenska kyrkan*
United States Department of State -
Sweden*
Folkpartiet official site
*
Liberal People's Party English-language site
*
Folkpartiet: Sweden's liberal party - a factsheet about the party and its policies (.pdf format)
*
The Swedish Parliament: The Liberal Party 
