2019 Svealandic election
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200 101 seats needed for a majority | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Turnout | 76.4% | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Results of the 2019 Election | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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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.
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.