2019 Svealandic election

2019 Svealandic General Election

April 19, 2019 (2019-04-19)
200 101 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	76.4%
First party Second party Third party   Leader Christoffer Elvestad Peter Bergström Freja Larsson Party Konservativa  Socialdemokratiska Partiet  Liberalerna Leader since 17 August 2014 5 November 2019 14 January 2015 Leader's seat Kåsjö and North Töve Tornportvarvs Skoganbyen Central Last election 30 -- -- Seats before 31 -- -- Seats won 53 43 30 Seat change 22 -- -- Popular vote -- -- -- Percentage -- -- -- Swing -- -- --   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   File:Anniken Hauglie Web3.JPG Leader Nils Johansson Gunnar Falk Brigitte Stefansdottir Party  Moderaterna  Själland Frihetspartiet   Alternativ Leader since 18 Septmember 2013 6 June 2010 22 April 2016 Leader's seat Årstrup and Tännås Lunneberg Sålna Last election -- -- -- Seats before -- -- -- Seats won 18 16 12 Seat change -- -- -- Popular vote -- -- -- Percentage -- -- -- Swing -- -- --
Results of the 2019 Election
Prime Minister before election Peter Bergström Social Democratic Prime Minister Christoffer Elvestad Conservative

The 2019 Svealandic general election was held in New Svealand on 19 April 2019 to elect all 200 members of the Landstinget; 100 via the First-past-the-post constituency system and 100 via the regional list. The elections were due to be held on 19 June 2019 but following the collapse of the Social Democratic-Alternative-Green Coalition government the Landstinget voted in favour of bringing the elections forward by two months.

The previous election in 2014 had resulted in a ruling coalition consisting of the Social Democrats, Alternative party and the Greens supported by the Fålanda Unity Party. However, the revelations uncovered in the Erikson emails published by Svealands-posten in October 2018 implicated a number of Alternative party cabinet ministers in scandals. This would later result in the Prime Minister and leader of the Social Democrats, Lars Mortensen, being ousted after an internal party ballot. Deputy Prime Minister Peter Bergström would become interim party leader and Prime Minister.

The elections resulted in a victory for the Conservative party led by Christoffer Elvestad. The Conservatives won 53 of the 200 seats, an increase of 22. The incumbent Social Democratic party lost 12 seats with their coalition partners in the Alternative Party loosing just under half their seats and winning only 12. The liberals, led by Freja Larsson, increased their number of seats to 30 and entered into coalition with the Conservatives supported by Nils Johansson’s Moderates.

Background

Erikson email scandal

In early October 2019, a number of emails between various Alternative party ministers and their staff were leaked to Svealands-posten. The emails detailed the involvement of four ministers coordinating their efforts in an alleged cover up. It was suspected that it was the head of the Svealandic Civil Service Julian Erikson

The ministers included were Jonathan Lundgren, Secretary of State for Health, Martin Alexandersson, Secretary of State for Agriculture, Rural Communities and the Environment, Filip Andreassen, Minister for Nelborne, and Karina Nyberg, Secretary of State for Transport.

The four had met in private before the emails were sent where they agreed to coordinate their efforts. The emails contained details of how Karina Nyberg attempted to cover up the fact that she had intentionally pushed for the construction company ALK, where her brother was a board member, to be awarded the contract for the new costal rail network.

It was also found that Jonathan Lundgren had been having an ongoing affair with a civil servant within the Department of Health whom he subsequently promoted within the department after forcing out another member of staff. Martin Alexandersson and Filip Andreassen were both revealed to have been working together and potentially accepting bribes from foreign businesses in Nelborne for access to and preferential treatment in the Svealandic agricultural industry.

Following the publishing of the emails in Svealands-posten all four ministers resigned and both Martin Alexandersson and Filip Andreassen were arrested by the Svealandic Territorial Police and charged with corruption. Karina Nyberg was initially arrested but was later released.

Resignation of Lars Mortensen

The leaking of the Erikson emails and the subsequent resignation led to key figures within the Social Democratic Party calling for the resignation of then Prime Minister Lars Mortensen. The appointment of so many Alternative Party MPs to key government positions and the abandonment of several key manifesto promises as part of the coalition deal were controversial amongst party members.

An internal no-confidence was vote was held on 4 November within the parliamentary Social Democratic Party in which 36 out of 55 MPs voted to oust Mortensen. This formally triggered a leadership election open to all party members however, Mortensen announced the morning after that he would stand down as party leader and Prime Minister rather than contest the leadership challenge.

With the Prime Minister’s resignation and the loss of a governing majority in the Landstinget, Opposition leader Christoffer Elvestad put forward a motion to bring forward the election. The Landstinget would ultimately agree to moving the date forward by two months to the 19 April 2020. Parliament was formally dissolved on the 22 March 2020.