2002 Swedish general election

General elections were held in Sweden on 15 September 2002,^[1] alongside municipal and county council elections. The Swedish Social Democratic Party remained the largest party in the Riksdag, winning 144 of the 349 seats.^[2]

2002 Swedish general election

← 1998 15 September 2002 2006 →
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All 349 seats in the Riksdag 175 seats needed for a majority
First party Second party Third party   Leader Göran Persson Bo Lundgren Lars Leijonborg Party Social Democrats Moderate Liberals Alliance Centre-left Centre-right Centre-right Last election 131 seats 82 seats 17 seats Seats won 144 55 48 Seat change 13 27 31 Popular vote 2,113,560 809,041 710,312 Percentage 39.9% 15.3% 13.4% Swing 3.5pp 7.6pp 8.7pp   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Leader Alf Svensson Gudrun Schyman Maud Olofsson Party Christian Democrats Left Centre Alliance Centre-right Centre-left Centre-right Last election 42 seats 43 seats 18 seats Seats won 33 30 22 Seat change 9 13 4 Popular vote 485,235 444,854 328,428 Percentage 9.2% 8.4% 6.2% Swing 2.6pp 3.6pp 1.1pp   Seventh party   Leader Peter Eriksson Maria Wetterstrand Party Green Alliance Centre-left Last election 16 seats Seats won 17 Seat change 1 Popular vote 246,392 Percentage 4.7% Swing 0.2pp
Distribution of constituency and levelling seats and largest political bloc within each constituency Largest party within each constituency and municipality
PM before election Göran Persson Social Democrats Elected PM Göran Persson Social Democrats

After securing a confidence and supply agreement with the Left Party and the Green Party, Prime Minister Göran Persson was able to remain in his position for a third consecutive term as a minority government.

Although the bloc compositions were similar to 1998, the complexions of the centre-right bloc shifted radically. Under new party leader Bo Lundgren, the Moderates lost more than seven percentage points and barely held on as the largest party in its coalition. Only eight municipalities in all of Sweden had the Moderates as the largest party, six of which were in the Stockholm area.^[3] The Peoples' Party led by Lars Leijonborg, instead more than doubled its parliamentary delegation and received above 13% of the vote. Lundgren resigned in the wake of the election, leading to the selection of future Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt as the Moderate leader.

Among the four other Riksdag parties, the Christian Democrats and the Left Party both lost ground, whereas the Centre and Green parties managed to reach the parliamentary threshold of four percentage points.

Among minor parties, the Norrbotten Party reached 9.4% of the vote in its county, polling above 20% in some inland areas. However, this was not enough to gain a Riksdag seat.^[3] The Sweden Democrats became the eight largest party for the first time, making sizeable gains and winning more council seats than ever before.