Think of the Djurgården Boys - A Co-Operative Wikibox TL
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In 1999 it was once again time for Sweden to elect its 22 members in the European parliament and there was some hope that this time voters would be more engaged in the election as some time had passed since the EU entry. Parties had tried to make it easier for the voters by dropping the use of multiple lists to avoid confusion and the party leaders were somewhat more involved in the campaign than in 1995, but there was still a drop in turnout to 39.2%.
While the campaign was unengaging and dull most of the times, there were two issues that rose to prominence; the Euro and Swedish neutrality policy. Sweden had not fulfilled the criteria to join the Euro in 1999 like some other EU countries, but the issue rose to prominence in 1998 when both Thage G. Peterson and Per Westerberg made statements which didn't rule out implementing by a simple majority vote in the Riksdag. This started a debate about the role of the European Union and how far European integration could really go and a campaign against further integration involving prominent figures like former Senior Citizen's Party members Brynolf Wendt and Ian Wachtmeister, businessmen Sven Hagströmer and Mats Qviberg and economist Nils Lundgren.
This was the beginning of a new political movement as the eurosceptic and self-described 'non-socialist and centrist' Alliance for Sweden party was formed in the autumn of '98. Both Wendt and Wachtmeister were approached to take up the leadership but declined, citing disagreements with other prominent party members. Eventually it landed on Sven Hagströmer to take up the job of the leading the party into the European elections and the novelty of a new political party with momentum made him the focal point of the campaign. The party got their biggest break in December as the eurosceptic Social Democratic EU-parliamentarian Sören Wibe caused a major stir after he joined the the Alliance after being bumped down to 8th place on his party's list. In June, the Alliance for Sweden finally entered the European parliament with 11% of the vote and 3 seats, with most of their voters being people who voted Moderate in the last election.
While the Moderate top candidate Carl Bildt was personally popular with the voters, the party was hurt by rumours of an aborted leadership coup against Per Westerberg in late '98 due to poor polling, which damaged Bildt's and Westerberg's relationship. They only appeared together on the campaign trail once which only fueled talk about the conflicts within the Moderate Party, and it ended up with 14.9% and only 2,600 more votes than the New Left. Some of their support also went to the People's Party who after a disastrous in '95 made a comeback by gaining 2 seats and painting themselves as the most pro-EU party and the main opponent of the Alliance, winning support among urban voters, especially the upper middle-class. Their relative success in this election was probably also what prevented Anne Wibble from being dropped as party leader.
The Social Democrats largely maintained their support in the election despite despite placing eurosceptic candidates lower down on their lists which led to the incumbent Kenth Pettersson losing his seat after the youth league's candidate Niklas Nordström bypassed him on personal votes, while the New Left lost support which was largely blamed on them being outshined as eurosceptics by the Centre, Greens and the Alliance as well as Margareta Olofsson's poor preformance in the single party leader's debate during the election. The Christian Democrats stayed mostly anonymous during the campaign and most of the attention they got focused on the personal campaign of the personal campaign of their former youth league president, Amanda Agestav, who succeeded in beating top candidate Lennart Sacrédeus by only 429 votes.
The biggest controversy however would come after the election with the nomination of Mona Sahlin as the next EU commissioner from Sweden, breaking the deal the Social Democrats made with the right prior to the EU-entry that the commissioner nominated by Sweden should alternate between a leftwinger and a rightwinger every term. Per Westerberg accused the government of only nominating Sahlin to appease her supporters after kicking her out of the cabinet following her expenses scandal in late '97. Despite this Sahlin was still made commissioner, responsible for Employment and Social Affairs in the Commission of Tony Blair.
In the rest of Europe the European People's Party/European Democrats became the biggest party after drastically increasing their seat count compared to '94 when they were only 1 seat behind the Party of European Socialists. This election was also the first time Sweden, Norway and Finland voted concurrently with the rest of Europe and the first time the Greens became the largest party in a country; Belgium, where they passed the liberal ELDR by 0.8 percent.
Members elected (Sweden)
Underlined members elected with personal vote, italic members incumbents.
Social Democrats:
Lena Hjelm-Wallén
Niklas Nordström
Margareta Winberg
Raimo Pärssinen
Ines Uusmann
Pär Nuder
Moderates:
Carl Bildt
Beatrice Ask
Anders Wijkman
New Left:
Gudrun Schyman
Jonas Sjöstedt
Marie Granlund
Alliance for Sweden:
Sven Hagströmer
Sören Wibe
Björn von der Esch
Centre:
Maud Olofsson
Ola Alterå
Greens:
Per Gahrton
Gunvor G. Ericson
People's:
Erik Ullenhag
Maria Leissner
Christian Democrats:
Amanda Agestav
While the campaign was unengaging and dull most of the times, there were two issues that rose to prominence; the Euro and Swedish neutrality policy. Sweden had not fulfilled the criteria to join the Euro in 1999 like some other EU countries, but the issue rose to prominence in 1998 when both Thage G. Peterson and Per Westerberg made statements which didn't rule out implementing by a simple majority vote in the Riksdag. This started a debate about the role of the European Union and how far European integration could really go and a campaign against further integration involving prominent figures like former Senior Citizen's Party members Brynolf Wendt and Ian Wachtmeister, businessmen Sven Hagströmer and Mats Qviberg and economist Nils Lundgren.
This was the beginning of a new political movement as the eurosceptic and self-described 'non-socialist and centrist' Alliance for Sweden party was formed in the autumn of '98. Both Wendt and Wachtmeister were approached to take up the leadership but declined, citing disagreements with other prominent party members. Eventually it landed on Sven Hagströmer to take up the job of the leading the party into the European elections and the novelty of a new political party with momentum made him the focal point of the campaign. The party got their biggest break in December as the eurosceptic Social Democratic EU-parliamentarian Sören Wibe caused a major stir after he joined the the Alliance after being bumped down to 8th place on his party's list. In June, the Alliance for Sweden finally entered the European parliament with 11% of the vote and 3 seats, with most of their voters being people who voted Moderate in the last election.
While the Moderate top candidate Carl Bildt was personally popular with the voters, the party was hurt by rumours of an aborted leadership coup against Per Westerberg in late '98 due to poor polling, which damaged Bildt's and Westerberg's relationship. They only appeared together on the campaign trail once which only fueled talk about the conflicts within the Moderate Party, and it ended up with 14.9% and only 2,600 more votes than the New Left. Some of their support also went to the People's Party who after a disastrous in '95 made a comeback by gaining 2 seats and painting themselves as the most pro-EU party and the main opponent of the Alliance, winning support among urban voters, especially the upper middle-class. Their relative success in this election was probably also what prevented Anne Wibble from being dropped as party leader.
The Social Democrats largely maintained their support in the election despite despite placing eurosceptic candidates lower down on their lists which led to the incumbent Kenth Pettersson losing his seat after the youth league's candidate Niklas Nordström bypassed him on personal votes, while the New Left lost support which was largely blamed on them being outshined as eurosceptics by the Centre, Greens and the Alliance as well as Margareta Olofsson's poor preformance in the single party leader's debate during the election. The Christian Democrats stayed mostly anonymous during the campaign and most of the attention they got focused on the personal campaign of the personal campaign of their former youth league president, Amanda Agestav, who succeeded in beating top candidate Lennart Sacrédeus by only 429 votes.
The biggest controversy however would come after the election with the nomination of Mona Sahlin as the next EU commissioner from Sweden, breaking the deal the Social Democrats made with the right prior to the EU-entry that the commissioner nominated by Sweden should alternate between a leftwinger and a rightwinger every term. Per Westerberg accused the government of only nominating Sahlin to appease her supporters after kicking her out of the cabinet following her expenses scandal in late '97. Despite this Sahlin was still made commissioner, responsible for Employment and Social Affairs in the Commission of Tony Blair.
In the rest of Europe the European People's Party/European Democrats became the biggest party after drastically increasing their seat count compared to '94 when they were only 1 seat behind the Party of European Socialists. This election was also the first time Sweden, Norway and Finland voted concurrently with the rest of Europe and the first time the Greens became the largest party in a country; Belgium, where they passed the liberal ELDR by 0.8 percent.
Members elected (Sweden)
Underlined members elected with personal vote, italic members incumbents.
Social Democrats:
Lena Hjelm-Wallén
Niklas Nordström
Margareta Winberg
Raimo Pärssinen
Ines Uusmann
Pär Nuder
Moderates:
Carl Bildt
Beatrice Ask
Anders Wijkman
New Left:
Gudrun Schyman
Jonas Sjöstedt
Marie Granlund
Alliance for Sweden:
Sven Hagströmer
Sören Wibe
Björn von der Esch
Centre:
Maud Olofsson
Ola Alterå
Greens:
Per Gahrton
Gunvor G. Ericson
People's:
Erik Ullenhag
Maria Leissner
Christian Democrats:
Amanda Agestav
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These are very good, but I would like to see another Eurovision one soon please....
While I'm probably as big of a Eurovision fan as you are, the timeline is supposed to be Swedish-focused and not Eurovision-focused. There will be a Eurovision update a bit into the 00's, though.
That's fine, would there be another non-political one coming up as well?
The Greens-EFA had a close second place finish in OTL 1999 thanks to the inclusion of the Volksunie in the EFA. With butterflies flapping all around they edged out the Liberals here.
During the 1990s the producer Philip Segal had worked with Universal Television and BBC Worldwide at reviving Doctor Who which had been off the air since 1989, and this time the plan was to make the show with a US broadcaster. Initially there was little interest from networks in picking the show, with all except for Fox declining it outright. Trevor Walton, VP in charge of TV-movie production agreed to produce a television movie designed to serve as a backdoor pilot and work began on it in 1995. But things would not be easy. Initially there were conflicts regarding the nature of the movie, if it should be a reboot or a continuation of the original series. Segal was first in favor of a complete reboot but was brought on board to the idea of a continuation by Walton and writer Matthew Roberts. However the Roberts' script was later deemed inadquate by other Fox executives and the movie therefore went through numerous rewrites, with different writers being brought in throughout 1995 and early 1996. Eventually the project was shelved by Fox despite Walton and Segal's objection and the Doctor Who revival entered development hell.
Despite Segal's best attempt no progress was made with the show thus he was ready to walk out in '97 and would have if the big break hadn't come. At this point in time the young network UPN was seeing some major success with sci-fi/fantasy shows like Star Trek and The Sentinel and was defining itself as the definitive sci-fi network. As the channel was expanding its broadcasts into additional nights it was looking for new programming and Doctor Who could be a perfect fit. With a Segal taking a less hands-on role this time a new writer and producer would be needed and after a young up-and-comer in the business signed a deal with Universal after failing to get his own show picked up, there was a light at the end of the tunnel. J.J. Abrams was brought on as an Executive Producer and showrunner and given the job of writing the pilot.
There was some concern from the BBC at putting an American with so little familliarity with Doctor Who in charge, however they were placated by Mark Gatiss and Paul Cornell being brought on the creative team as staff writer and Executive Story Editor respectively. Then came the issue of who would play the Eighth Doctor. Paul McGann had been the favourite when the tv-movie was in development, but was now unavailable after being cast as Qui-Gonn Jinn in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace. The BBC made it an ultimatum that the Doctor be played by a British actor, however their first pick Rowan Atkinson was deemed too dour and uncharismatic by American test audiences. Hugh Laurie was also a top pick by the BBC but he was taken out of the running after joining The WB's new show Buffy the Vampire Slayer, so eventually it landed on another British actor looking at making a big break in America to take the role. Anthony Head was cast as the Eighth Doctor, with a premiere set for February 1998. In interviews Head would say that one of his main inspirations for his Doctor was Jon Pertwee's Doctor, and that certainly shone through. The Eighth Doctor had the characteristics of an well mannered (if somewhat sarcastic) gentleman adventurer known for his trademark worn leather jacket and never being above throwing a punch whenever the situation called for it.
Then it came down to the companion and with Head cast as the Doctor UPN wanted an American actress to play her. After a difficult search Jennifer Garner was cast as Casey Sloane, who takes a front and centre role in the pilot where she plays a medical student who has a run in with a strange new professor, The Doctor in disguise. The first 13-episode season got good reviews and ratings which made it a lock for renewal, despite fan criticism of there being too much focus placed on the new villain called the Covenant, a group of Earth businessmen attempting to get hold of aliens and alien technology. The Covenant would be the main villain for the first four and a half seasons, however after listening to fan criticism of the prominence it had in the first season, the show became more episodic from season 2 and onwards. It took a similar path to The X-Files by being mostly episodic but with a few 'mythology'-episodes per season thrown in to advance the story arc. Also as a bit of fan service, UNIT were brought back in Season 2 with the Scottish UNIT Captain Michael Baker (Kevin McKidd) added to the main cast and the Brigadier making 6 guest appearances.
The Covenant arc came to an end in the season 4 mid-season two-parter with Casey being killed in the final battle as Jennifer Garner was moving on to a film career. The death of Casey was however controversial in the British tabloids as Doctor Who was still very much considered a family show in the UK, and her death from a gunshot wound led to a debate about the nature of the show and if it could still be considered child-friendly. Kevin McKidd left the show at the same time as Garner, so Amy Acker playing Casey's sister Olivia was left as the sole companion until the end of season four when D.B. Woodside joined the cast as Jack Martin, a U.S. Army Captain picked up by the Doctor on the european front in World War II.
In his final season as the Doctor, Anthony Head was left as the last castmember from the first season (Acker appeared as a guest star in one season 1 episode), as Amy Acker had left the show to join Joss Whedon's new science fiction show Serenity. D.B. Woodside stayed on as Jack Martin and a new character, the tough and opinionated journalist Rebecca Lee portrayed by Janeane Garofalo, was added to the cast. The last season of the Eighth Doctor's run was also the first one with Paul Cornell as the showrunner since J.J. Abrams had left at the end of season 4 to pursue other projects. Season 5 was mostly episodic in nature without any major story arc stretching over the course of the season, but it was significant in that it brought back The Master who had last appeared in the 1998 serial Survival. Bill Nighy's menacing but soft spoken Master turned out to be a fan favourite and after the season finale where he left the Doctor bleeding out, on the brink of regeneration, fans were already clamoring for his return.
So Anthony Head's reign as the Doctor came to an end when the character regenerated at the end of season 5, with Eddie Izzard getting the difficult job of carrying the role forward.
Despite Segal's best attempt no progress was made with the show thus he was ready to walk out in '97 and would have if the big break hadn't come. At this point in time the young network UPN was seeing some major success with sci-fi/fantasy shows like Star Trek and The Sentinel and was defining itself as the definitive sci-fi network. As the channel was expanding its broadcasts into additional nights it was looking for new programming and Doctor Who could be a perfect fit. With a Segal taking a less hands-on role this time a new writer and producer would be needed and after a young up-and-comer in the business signed a deal with Universal after failing to get his own show picked up, there was a light at the end of the tunnel. J.J. Abrams was brought on as an Executive Producer and showrunner and given the job of writing the pilot.
There was some concern from the BBC at putting an American with so little familliarity with Doctor Who in charge, however they were placated by Mark Gatiss and Paul Cornell being brought on the creative team as staff writer and Executive Story Editor respectively. Then came the issue of who would play the Eighth Doctor. Paul McGann had been the favourite when the tv-movie was in development, but was now unavailable after being cast as Qui-Gonn Jinn in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace. The BBC made it an ultimatum that the Doctor be played by a British actor, however their first pick Rowan Atkinson was deemed too dour and uncharismatic by American test audiences. Hugh Laurie was also a top pick by the BBC but he was taken out of the running after joining The WB's new show Buffy the Vampire Slayer, so eventually it landed on another British actor looking at making a big break in America to take the role. Anthony Head was cast as the Eighth Doctor, with a premiere set for February 1998. In interviews Head would say that one of his main inspirations for his Doctor was Jon Pertwee's Doctor, and that certainly shone through. The Eighth Doctor had the characteristics of an well mannered (if somewhat sarcastic) gentleman adventurer known for his trademark worn leather jacket and never being above throwing a punch whenever the situation called for it.
Then it came down to the companion and with Head cast as the Doctor UPN wanted an American actress to play her. After a difficult search Jennifer Garner was cast as Casey Sloane, who takes a front and centre role in the pilot where she plays a medical student who has a run in with a strange new professor, The Doctor in disguise. The first 13-episode season got good reviews and ratings which made it a lock for renewal, despite fan criticism of there being too much focus placed on the new villain called the Covenant, a group of Earth businessmen attempting to get hold of aliens and alien technology. The Covenant would be the main villain for the first four and a half seasons, however after listening to fan criticism of the prominence it had in the first season, the show became more episodic from season 2 and onwards. It took a similar path to The X-Files by being mostly episodic but with a few 'mythology'-episodes per season thrown in to advance the story arc. Also as a bit of fan service, UNIT were brought back in Season 2 with the Scottish UNIT Captain Michael Baker (Kevin McKidd) added to the main cast and the Brigadier making 6 guest appearances.
The Covenant arc came to an end in the season 4 mid-season two-parter with Casey being killed in the final battle as Jennifer Garner was moving on to a film career. The death of Casey was however controversial in the British tabloids as Doctor Who was still very much considered a family show in the UK, and her death from a gunshot wound led to a debate about the nature of the show and if it could still be considered child-friendly. Kevin McKidd left the show at the same time as Garner, so Amy Acker playing Casey's sister Olivia was left as the sole companion until the end of season four when D.B. Woodside joined the cast as Jack Martin, a U.S. Army Captain picked up by the Doctor on the european front in World War II.
In his final season as the Doctor, Anthony Head was left as the last castmember from the first season (Acker appeared as a guest star in one season 1 episode), as Amy Acker had left the show to join Joss Whedon's new science fiction show Serenity. D.B. Woodside stayed on as Jack Martin and a new character, the tough and opinionated journalist Rebecca Lee portrayed by Janeane Garofalo, was added to the cast. The last season of the Eighth Doctor's run was also the first one with Paul Cornell as the showrunner since J.J. Abrams had left at the end of season 4 to pursue other projects. Season 5 was mostly episodic in nature without any major story arc stretching over the course of the season, but it was significant in that it brought back The Master who had last appeared in the 1998 serial Survival. Bill Nighy's menacing but soft spoken Master turned out to be a fan favourite and after the season finale where he left the Doctor bleeding out, on the brink of regeneration, fans were already clamoring for his return.
So Anthony Head's reign as the Doctor came to an end when the character regenerated at the end of season 5, with Eddie Izzard getting the difficult job of carrying the role forward.
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The 90s was a difficult decade for the Social Democrats, full of internal divides and growing apathy in their base due to the brutal cuts made to welfare system in order to turn the deficit into a surplus. Eventually however, things began to pay off as the budget was once again in the black and the national debt dropped below 50%, enabling the Social Democrats to roll out new investments in welfare to make their base happy. This was where things hit a snag in their cooperation with the Centre Party which had continued after the '97 election, as the improving economic conditions was making the Centre base hungry for something else; tax cuts. There had long been strife among the core voters of the two parties ever since their cooperation began, however it had been begrudgingly accepted due to the difficult economic situation. Now however, with an improving economy they were hungry for change and in the Centre Party it was popular EU-parliamentarian Maud Olofsson who voiced the internal opposition from the right. Tougher terms were put in place by the parties at the budget negotiations and a week rarely went by without the press writing something about their disagreements. Eventually things became untenable and the 1998 autumn budget proposition would be the last the two parties presented together during the term, to the disappointment of Thage G. Peterson and Per-Ola Eriksson who as similar consensus-driven politicians had developed a strong relationship over the years. The Social Democrats would instead turn to the New Left for budget cooperation for the remainder of the term.
In Peterson's time as Prime Minister he had taken a conscious choice to broaden the appeal of the Social Democrats as he was seen as dull and grey old man, a safe pair of hands. In order to prevent that image from sticking to the party a great deal of young men and women were appointed to the cabinet during his term, even going so far as making the cabinet majority female. So it was natural that when Peterson announced his intent to step down in the spring of 2000 at the age of 67 it was considered highly likely that his successor would be a woman. The two strongest male candidates were Anders Sundström and Leif Pagrotsky, Finance and Business ministers respectively, however Sundström was in this case genuinley not interested in the job and happy to continue at finance, while Pagrotsky found little broad support in the party. The one who had been considered leader-in-waiting, Mona Sahlin, had been shuffled off to the European Commission following and expenses scandal in '97 and was therefore out of it, and thus it stood between the two superstars of the cabinet, Justice Minister Anna Lindh and Employment Minister Wanja Lundby-Wedin.
Lindh had been a prominent Social Democrat ever since 1984 when she was elected leader of the youth league and entered the powerful executive committee. She was considered to be on the right of the party but had managed to keep the youth league united throught her tenure and was considered a competent and experienced cabinet member. On the other hand you had Wanja Lundby-Wedin, a former labour union official who joined the cabinet in 1995 as Minister for Families when the party was reunited. In 1997 she was promoted to Minister for Employment and rose in popularity as the unemployment figures dropped as was polled as the second most popular cabinet member in 1999, narrowly beaten by the Prime Minister and with Lindh right behind her. While a labour unionist Lundby-Wedin was never close to Stig Malm's inner circle and was considered closer to the pragmatic wing of the party even when she first entered government, enabling her to build strong relations with both the right and the left in the party. In traditional Social Democratic fashion neither of them declared their interest in the leadership and everything was decided in the nominating committee where the districts negotiated to find a consensus. According to the memoirs of the then-party secretary Göran Persson it was a deadlock until the final week before the party congress when the northern districts (the so-called "forest-right"), which had been wavering quite heavily, finally came out in favor Lundby-Wedin, spelling the end for Lindh who only had the support of Stockholm County and the south-east left.
Lundby-Wedin came into office in May of 2000 with a strong economy and low unemployment but things would quickly turn around in the fall as the dot-com bubble burst and things turned sour again. For most of the spring of 2001 the right led the socialist bloc by about 5 points, with the Social Democrats polling slightly over 30 percent. A scandal over racist and misygonistic comments which forced Business Minister Lennart Holmlund to resign certainly didn't help things either. But things turned around during the summer as positive growth figures and a strong campaign combined with an opposition in disarray brought voters back home to the Social Democrats. For Lundby-Wedin the result was considered a success all things considered as the party only lost 0.3% and gained 5 seats thanks to favourable vote distribution in the constituencies.
For the Moderates on the other hand the election was a disappointment with nearly 5% lost, mostly to other rightwing parties and political newcomers. Per Westerberg had been damaged by tabloid stories about his brother's questionable business dealings with Pakistan as CEO of the defense contractor Celsius AB in 2000. A party which gained a great deal of voters from the Moderates was the newly formed Citizens' Party (Medborgarpartiet) under Brynolf Wendt. Formed in 2000, the party consisted mostly of individuals also active in the Alliance for Sweden who started up the new party after the board of the Alliance voted against participating in the Riksdag elections. Wendt, who had left the Senior Citizens' Interest Party after beginning to see them as too anti-growth was approached for the leadership and accepted. The party seriously challenged the Moderates for the populist vote and ran on tougher immigration controls and better elderly care, narrowly picking up enough votes to get past the 4% barrier with 4.02%, getting 16 seats as a result.
The Centre Party, following a period of infighting between its pragmatic and more ideologically rightwing factions in the years prior to the election, ended up largely in the background of the campaign as other parties took centre stage. Still, the 9.7% and 35 seats won was only a slight drop from the '97 result as disillusioned Social Democrats moved to the Centre to fill the void by more rightwing voters jumping ship to the Christian Democrats. The Christian Democrats, following the resignation of longtime leader Alf Svensson in September of 2000 had gone for a real attempt at reinvigoration by electing a leader 21 years his junior; the 41 year old parliamentary group leader Göran Hägglund. Initially Hägglund suffered issues due to being largely unknown by the public prior to his election as leader, but after delivering what was seen as the strongest speech of all party leaders at the Almedalen political week, his star began to rise. In the campaign the Christian Democrats opted to focus on the 'soft issues' of health care, elderly care and child care which payed off nicely as it gave them the image of being the party on the right which would protect the welfare state, not gut it which was the Moderates' image at the time. Hägglund's witty and folksy style also proved very effective in debates and campaign, with his personal approval ratings skyrocketing and making him the most popular party leader with a margin of 7 percent over Lundby-Wedin. The result was a massive success for the Christian Democrats when they got their best result ever at that point, 14.1% and 55 seats, only 4.5% separating them from the Moderates.
While Hägglund's success was compared to the Westerberg-effect, the party which benefitted from the Westerberg-effect back in '85 suffered a truly horrible defeat. The questions over Anne Wibble's leadership of the party had subsided following a strong result in the European elections and she seemed safe in her position, but it turns out that good things don't last long for the People's Party. After Wibble was diagnosed with terminal cancer during the end of the summer of '99 her time a new leader needed to but elected, and soon. At the November conference it stood between Jan Björklund of the classical liberal wing, Maria Leissner of the social liberal wing, and the dark horse Carl B. Hamilton who positioned himself somewhere in between. Everyone expected a race between Björklund and Leissner but after Björklund was eliminated by a one-vote margin in the first round, the contest was turned on its head. Hamilton and Leissner faced of in the last round and the former came out victorious, again by a very narrow margin. According to a diary released after her death, the fellow economist Hamilton was Wibble's favoured candidate, but he would not prove to be the right man to the lead the party in the years to come. Hamilton came of as dull, gruff and wonky in most of his public appearances and was never one with an ability to inspire voters. The People's Party wobbled around the 4% threshold for most of the campaign as well as election night, and in the end they just didn't get enough votes. With 3.7% the People's Party was out of the Riksdag, even ending up with less votes than the Greens who got 3.9% and only had a margin of ≈700 votes between them an parliamentary representation.
The final result was 173 seats for the left and 160 seats for the right, with the Citizens' Party acting as the kingmaker. Whilst referring to themselves as a centrist party, without bloc-affiliation, in reality the Citizens' Party was much on the right seeing to actual policies. Wanja Lundby-Wedin stayed on for a while, attempting to hash out a deal between both the New Left and Centre parties, something which was supported by the Centre Party's youth league leader Mikaela Valtersson as means to lock out the Citizens' Party from power. Per-Ola Eriksson was also initially open to the idea, but eventually it proved fruitless due to opposition within the Centre Party. Lundby-Wedin tendered her resignation as Prime Minister but was safe as party leader, while Per Westerberg entered the Sager House as PM but somewhat less safe as leader due to the losses suffered in the election. A three-party coalition between the Moderates, Christian Democrats and Centre party took power but in an extremely weak position as they would be dependent on the Citizens' Party every time the Social Democrats and New Left banded together in a vote.
In Peterson's time as Prime Minister he had taken a conscious choice to broaden the appeal of the Social Democrats as he was seen as dull and grey old man, a safe pair of hands. In order to prevent that image from sticking to the party a great deal of young men and women were appointed to the cabinet during his term, even going so far as making the cabinet majority female. So it was natural that when Peterson announced his intent to step down in the spring of 2000 at the age of 67 it was considered highly likely that his successor would be a woman. The two strongest male candidates were Anders Sundström and Leif Pagrotsky, Finance and Business ministers respectively, however Sundström was in this case genuinley not interested in the job and happy to continue at finance, while Pagrotsky found little broad support in the party. The one who had been considered leader-in-waiting, Mona Sahlin, had been shuffled off to the European Commission following and expenses scandal in '97 and was therefore out of it, and thus it stood between the two superstars of the cabinet, Justice Minister Anna Lindh and Employment Minister Wanja Lundby-Wedin.
Lindh had been a prominent Social Democrat ever since 1984 when she was elected leader of the youth league and entered the powerful executive committee. She was considered to be on the right of the party but had managed to keep the youth league united throught her tenure and was considered a competent and experienced cabinet member. On the other hand you had Wanja Lundby-Wedin, a former labour union official who joined the cabinet in 1995 as Minister for Families when the party was reunited. In 1997 she was promoted to Minister for Employment and rose in popularity as the unemployment figures dropped as was polled as the second most popular cabinet member in 1999, narrowly beaten by the Prime Minister and with Lindh right behind her. While a labour unionist Lundby-Wedin was never close to Stig Malm's inner circle and was considered closer to the pragmatic wing of the party even when she first entered government, enabling her to build strong relations with both the right and the left in the party. In traditional Social Democratic fashion neither of them declared their interest in the leadership and everything was decided in the nominating committee where the districts negotiated to find a consensus. According to the memoirs of the then-party secretary Göran Persson it was a deadlock until the final week before the party congress when the northern districts (the so-called "forest-right"), which had been wavering quite heavily, finally came out in favor Lundby-Wedin, spelling the end for Lindh who only had the support of Stockholm County and the south-east left.
Lundby-Wedin came into office in May of 2000 with a strong economy and low unemployment but things would quickly turn around in the fall as the dot-com bubble burst and things turned sour again. For most of the spring of 2001 the right led the socialist bloc by about 5 points, with the Social Democrats polling slightly over 30 percent. A scandal over racist and misygonistic comments which forced Business Minister Lennart Holmlund to resign certainly didn't help things either. But things turned around during the summer as positive growth figures and a strong campaign combined with an opposition in disarray brought voters back home to the Social Democrats. For Lundby-Wedin the result was considered a success all things considered as the party only lost 0.3% and gained 5 seats thanks to favourable vote distribution in the constituencies.
For the Moderates on the other hand the election was a disappointment with nearly 5% lost, mostly to other rightwing parties and political newcomers. Per Westerberg had been damaged by tabloid stories about his brother's questionable business dealings with Pakistan as CEO of the defense contractor Celsius AB in 2000. A party which gained a great deal of voters from the Moderates was the newly formed Citizens' Party (Medborgarpartiet) under Brynolf Wendt. Formed in 2000, the party consisted mostly of individuals also active in the Alliance for Sweden who started up the new party after the board of the Alliance voted against participating in the Riksdag elections. Wendt, who had left the Senior Citizens' Interest Party after beginning to see them as too anti-growth was approached for the leadership and accepted. The party seriously challenged the Moderates for the populist vote and ran on tougher immigration controls and better elderly care, narrowly picking up enough votes to get past the 4% barrier with 4.02%, getting 16 seats as a result.
The Centre Party, following a period of infighting between its pragmatic and more ideologically rightwing factions in the years prior to the election, ended up largely in the background of the campaign as other parties took centre stage. Still, the 9.7% and 35 seats won was only a slight drop from the '97 result as disillusioned Social Democrats moved to the Centre to fill the void by more rightwing voters jumping ship to the Christian Democrats. The Christian Democrats, following the resignation of longtime leader Alf Svensson in September of 2000 had gone for a real attempt at reinvigoration by electing a leader 21 years his junior; the 41 year old parliamentary group leader Göran Hägglund. Initially Hägglund suffered issues due to being largely unknown by the public prior to his election as leader, but after delivering what was seen as the strongest speech of all party leaders at the Almedalen political week, his star began to rise. In the campaign the Christian Democrats opted to focus on the 'soft issues' of health care, elderly care and child care which payed off nicely as it gave them the image of being the party on the right which would protect the welfare state, not gut it which was the Moderates' image at the time. Hägglund's witty and folksy style also proved very effective in debates and campaign, with his personal approval ratings skyrocketing and making him the most popular party leader with a margin of 7 percent over Lundby-Wedin. The result was a massive success for the Christian Democrats when they got their best result ever at that point, 14.1% and 55 seats, only 4.5% separating them from the Moderates.
While Hägglund's success was compared to the Westerberg-effect, the party which benefitted from the Westerberg-effect back in '85 suffered a truly horrible defeat. The questions over Anne Wibble's leadership of the party had subsided following a strong result in the European elections and she seemed safe in her position, but it turns out that good things don't last long for the People's Party. After Wibble was diagnosed with terminal cancer during the end of the summer of '99 her time a new leader needed to but elected, and soon. At the November conference it stood between Jan Björklund of the classical liberal wing, Maria Leissner of the social liberal wing, and the dark horse Carl B. Hamilton who positioned himself somewhere in between. Everyone expected a race between Björklund and Leissner but after Björklund was eliminated by a one-vote margin in the first round, the contest was turned on its head. Hamilton and Leissner faced of in the last round and the former came out victorious, again by a very narrow margin. According to a diary released after her death, the fellow economist Hamilton was Wibble's favoured candidate, but he would not prove to be the right man to the lead the party in the years to come. Hamilton came of as dull, gruff and wonky in most of his public appearances and was never one with an ability to inspire voters. The People's Party wobbled around the 4% threshold for most of the campaign as well as election night, and in the end they just didn't get enough votes. With 3.7% the People's Party was out of the Riksdag, even ending up with less votes than the Greens who got 3.9% and only had a margin of ≈700 votes between them an parliamentary representation.
The final result was 173 seats for the left and 160 seats for the right, with the Citizens' Party acting as the kingmaker. Whilst referring to themselves as a centrist party, without bloc-affiliation, in reality the Citizens' Party was much on the right seeing to actual policies. Wanja Lundby-Wedin stayed on for a while, attempting to hash out a deal between both the New Left and Centre parties, something which was supported by the Centre Party's youth league leader Mikaela Valtersson as means to lock out the Citizens' Party from power. Per-Ola Eriksson was also initially open to the idea, but eventually it proved fruitless due to opposition within the Centre Party. Lundby-Wedin tendered her resignation as Prime Minister but was safe as party leader, while Per Westerberg entered the Sager House as PM but somewhat less safe as leader due to the losses suffered in the election. A three-party coalition between the Moderates, Christian Democrats and Centre party took power but in an extremely weak position as they would be dependent on the Citizens' Party every time the Social Democrats and New Left banded together in a vote.
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Peterson's Second Ministry (1994-2000)
Prime Minister’s Office
Prime Minister: Thage G. Peterson, Social Democrat
Deputy Prime Minister: Ingvar Carlsson (1994-1997), Lena Hjelm-Wallén (1997-1999), Lars Stjernkvist (1999-2000)
Minister for Policy Coordination: Ingvar Carlsson (1995-1997)
Minister for Policy Coordination and Europe: Lars Stjernkvist (1997-2000)
Ministry of Justice
Minister for Justice: Sten Heckscher, Social Democrat (1993-1997), Anna Lindh (1997-2000)
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Minister for Foreign Affairs: Allan Larsson (1993-1997), Sten Heckscher (1997-2000)
Minister for International Development: Viola Furubjelke
Minister for Foreign Trade and Europe: Lena Hjelm-Wallén (1994-1997)
Minister for Foreign Trade: Leif Pagrotsky (1997), Kristina Persson (1997-2000)
Ministry of Defence
Minister for Defence: Sven Hulterström, Social Democrat
Ministry of Health and Social Affairs
Minister for Health and Social Affairs: Ingvar Carlsson (1994-1995), Bo Holmberg (1995-2000)
Minister for Social Security: Maud Björnemalm (1994-1997), Leni Björklund (1997-2000)
Minister for Families: Gunnel Färm (1994-1995), Wanja Lundby-Wedin (1995-1997), Tommy Waidelich (1997-2000)
Ministry of Finance
Minister for Finance: Anders Sundström, Social Democrat
Minister for Taxation: Leif Pagrotsky, Social Democrat (1994-1997)
Minister for Civil Affairs and Housing: Annika Billström (1997-2000)
Ministry of Education
Minister for Education: Carl Tham, Social Democrat
Minister for Schools: Anna Lindh, Social Democrat (1993-1997)
Minister for Schools and Culture: Karl-Petter Thorwaldsson (1997-2000)
Ministry of Agriculture
Minister for Agriculture: Birgitta Dahl (1994-1997), Göran Färm (1997-2000)
Ministry of the Environment
Minister for the Environment: Anneli Hulthén
Minister for Energy: Anneli Hulthén (1994-1995, 1997-2000), Kristina Persson (1995-1997)
Ministry of Industry and Growth
Minister for Industry and Growth: Jan Bergqvist, Social Democrat (1993-1997)
Ministry of Business and Growth
Minister for Business and Growth: Mona Sahlin, Social Democrat (1997), Leif Pagrotsky (1998-2000)
Ministry of Employment
Minister for Employment, Gender Equality and Integration: Mona Sahlin (1994-1997), Wanja Lundby-Wedin (1997-2000)
Ministry of Communications
Minister for Communications: Margot Wallström
Minister for Civil Affairs, Culture, Integration and Housing: Kristina Persson (1994-1995), Leif Blomberg (1995-1997)
---------------
Lundby-Wedin Ministry, 2000-2001
Prime Minister’s Office
Prime Minister: Wanja Lundby-Wedin
Minister for Policy Coordination and European Affairs: Göran Färm
Ministry of Justice
Minister for Justice: Anna Lindh
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Minister for Foreign Affairs: Leif Pagrotsky
Minister for International Development: Viola Furubjelke
Minister for Foreign Trade: Kristina Persson
Ministry of Defence
Minister for Defence: Bo Holmberg
Ministry of Health and Social Affairs
Minister for Health and Social Affairs: Anneli Hulthén
Minister for Social Security: Leni Björklund
Minister for Families: Tommy Waidelich
Ministry of Finance
Minister for Finance: Anders Sundström
Minister for Civil Affairs and Housing: Ilmar Reepalu
Ministry of Education
Minister for Education: Karl-Petter Thorwaldsson
Minister for Culture: Håkan Juholt
Ministry of Agriculture
Minister for Agriculture: Britt Bohlin
Ministry of the Environment
Minister for the Environment, Consumer Affairs and Gender Equality: Margot Wallström
Ministry of Business and Growth
Minister for Business and Growth: Lennart Holmlund (2000-2001), Annika Billström (2001, acting)
Ministry of Employment
Deputy Prime Minister, Minister for Employment and Integration: Lars Stjernkvist
Ministry of Communications
Minister for Communications: Annika Billström
Prime Minister’s Office
Prime Minister: Thage G. Peterson, Social Democrat
Deputy Prime Minister: Ingvar Carlsson (1994-1997), Lena Hjelm-Wallén (1997-1999), Lars Stjernkvist (1999-2000)
Minister for Policy Coordination: Ingvar Carlsson (1995-1997)
Minister for Policy Coordination and Europe: Lars Stjernkvist (1997-2000)
Ministry of Justice
Minister for Justice: Sten Heckscher, Social Democrat (1993-1997), Anna Lindh (1997-2000)
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Minister for Foreign Affairs: Allan Larsson (1993-1997), Sten Heckscher (1997-2000)
Minister for International Development: Viola Furubjelke
Minister for Foreign Trade and Europe: Lena Hjelm-Wallén (1994-1997)
Minister for Foreign Trade: Leif Pagrotsky (1997), Kristina Persson (1997-2000)
Ministry of Defence
Minister for Defence: Sven Hulterström, Social Democrat
Ministry of Health and Social Affairs
Minister for Health and Social Affairs: Ingvar Carlsson (1994-1995), Bo Holmberg (1995-2000)
Minister for Social Security: Maud Björnemalm (1994-1997), Leni Björklund (1997-2000)
Minister for Families: Gunnel Färm (1994-1995), Wanja Lundby-Wedin (1995-1997), Tommy Waidelich (1997-2000)
Ministry of Finance
Minister for Finance: Anders Sundström, Social Democrat
Minister for Taxation: Leif Pagrotsky, Social Democrat (1994-1997)
Minister for Civil Affairs and Housing: Annika Billström (1997-2000)
Ministry of Education
Minister for Education: Carl Tham, Social Democrat
Minister for Schools: Anna Lindh, Social Democrat (1993-1997)
Minister for Schools and Culture: Karl-Petter Thorwaldsson (1997-2000)
Ministry of Agriculture
Minister for Agriculture: Birgitta Dahl (1994-1997), Göran Färm (1997-2000)
Ministry of the Environment
Minister for the Environment: Anneli Hulthén
Minister for Energy: Anneli Hulthén (1994-1995, 1997-2000), Kristina Persson (1995-1997)
Ministry of Industry and Growth
Minister for Industry and Growth: Jan Bergqvist, Social Democrat (1993-1997)
Ministry of Business and Growth
Minister for Business and Growth: Mona Sahlin, Social Democrat (1997), Leif Pagrotsky (1998-2000)
Ministry of Employment
Minister for Employment, Gender Equality and Integration: Mona Sahlin (1994-1997), Wanja Lundby-Wedin (1997-2000)
Ministry of Communications
Minister for Communications: Margot Wallström
Minister for Civil Affairs, Culture, Integration and Housing: Kristina Persson (1994-1995), Leif Blomberg (1995-1997)
---------------
Lundby-Wedin Ministry, 2000-2001
Prime Minister’s Office
Prime Minister: Wanja Lundby-Wedin
Minister for Policy Coordination and European Affairs: Göran Färm
Ministry of Justice
Minister for Justice: Anna Lindh
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Minister for Foreign Affairs: Leif Pagrotsky
Minister for International Development: Viola Furubjelke
Minister for Foreign Trade: Kristina Persson
Ministry of Defence
Minister for Defence: Bo Holmberg
Ministry of Health and Social Affairs
Minister for Health and Social Affairs: Anneli Hulthén
Minister for Social Security: Leni Björklund
Minister for Families: Tommy Waidelich
Ministry of Finance
Minister for Finance: Anders Sundström
Minister for Civil Affairs and Housing: Ilmar Reepalu
Ministry of Education
Minister for Education: Karl-Petter Thorwaldsson
Minister for Culture: Håkan Juholt
Ministry of Agriculture
Minister for Agriculture: Britt Bohlin
Ministry of the Environment
Minister for the Environment, Consumer Affairs and Gender Equality: Margot Wallström
Ministry of Business and Growth
Minister for Business and Growth: Lennart Holmlund (2000-2001), Annika Billström (2001, acting)
Ministry of Employment
Deputy Prime Minister, Minister for Employment and Integration: Lars Stjernkvist
Ministry of Communications
Minister for Communications: Annika Billström
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Great update! The parliamentary situation is very simulator to that one between 2010-2014
Aside from the left bloc being bigger than the right this time around, then yes.
Perhaps, perhaps....
Well it may not butterfly away a musical-episode for Buffy since Hugh Laurie also has some quite extensive music-skills, having released a blues album and everything.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0rA3Dmu9B4
