General elections were held in Sweden on 15 September 1985.^[1] The Swedish Social Democratic Party remained the largest party in the Riksdag, winning 159 of the 349 seats.^[2] Its leader, Olof Palme, kept his position as Prime Minister. He would retain this position successfully until his assassination in 1986.

Quick Facts All 349 seats in the Riksdag 175 seats needed for a majority, First party ...

1985 Swedish general election

← 1982 15 September 1985 1988 →
All 349 seats in the Riksdag 175 seats needed for a majority
First party Second party Third party   Leader Olof Palme Ulf Adelsohn Bengt Westerberg Party Social Democrats Moderate Liberals Last election 166 86 21 Seats won 159 76 51 Seat change 7 10 30 Popular vote 2,487,551 1,187,335 792,268 Percentage 44.68% 21.33% 14.23% Swing 0.93pp 2.31pp 8.33pp   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Leader Thorbjörn Fälldin Lars Werner Alf Svensson Party Centre Left-Communist Christian Democrats Last election 56 20 0 Seats won 43 19 1 Seat change 13 1 1 Popular vote 490,999 298,419 131,548 Percentage 8.82% 5.36% 2.36% Swing 6.46pp 0.20pp 0.49pp
Map of the election, showing the distribution of constituency and levelling seats, as well as the largest political bloc within each constituency.
PM before election Olof Palme Social Democrats Elected PM Olof Palme Social Democrats

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At a campaign meeting in Sundsvall on 22 August, Minister of Social Welfare Sten Andersson promised to increase the state pensions as a compensation for the price increases following the devaluation of the krona in 1982. The Social Democrat (Socialdemokraterna) government also stressed that it had managed to decrease the budget deficit from 90 billion to 60 billion kronas. The Social Democrats also promised not to increase taxes or lower the quality of the welfare system.

The Centre Party had a technical cooperation with the Christian Democrats. The Christian Democrats always received fewer votes than the 4% threshold for gaining seats to the Riksdag. The cooperation was criticized within the Centre Party. The aim was for both parties to gain votes, but in the end the Centre Party's share of the votes decreased in comparison to the previous election in 1982. The Christian Democrats only gained one seat in parliament for its leader, Alf Svensson.

The political debate was dominated by the Moderate Party and the Social Democrats. In January 1985, the Moderate Party had proposed in parliament a detailed plan with tax cuts and cuts in spending. The Social Democrats' leader Olof Palme managed to turn this against the Moderate Party by repeating the negative effects this would have on junior soccer teams. The Moderate Party was supported by 30 percent in an opinion poll by SIFO in June 1985, but its support decreased during the campaign.

The Liberal People's Party had chosen Bengt Westerberg as its party leader in October 1983; he had had trouble getting his message through, not least because of the party's small size in parliament and its only receiving 5.9 percent support in the 1982 election. However, in August Westerberg became viewed by the public as a calm and honest politician, in comparison to the constantly arguing Adelsohn and Palme. The Liberal People's Party was the big winner of the 1985 election, increasing its support to 14.2 percent.

The Centre Party and Christian Democratic Unity (CDU) ran a joint list in some constituencies under the name "Centre".^[4] One CDU candidate was elected on the Centre list, the first time the party had had parliamentary representation.^[2]