86 percent of those who voted for the Sweden Democrats in the 2018 election also voted for the party in this year’s election. The largest proportion of new SD voters are former social democrats and moderates.
Since SD entered the Riksdag in 2010, the party has made strong progress and according to Henrik Ekengren Oscarsson, it is significant for growing parties to retain voters.
– And the Sweden Democrats have succeeded in that, he says.
Many SD voters are also relatively young and have never voted for another party, explains Ekengren Oscarsson.
– You build up a habit of voting for the Sweden Democrats.
Read more here: This is how the voters moved between the parties
C and L voters least faithful
According to Valu, the largest percentage of party changers can be found with the Center Party and the Liberals. 41 percent of 2018 C voters voted for the party in this year’s election. The corresponding figure for L is 35 percent.
– It is because the strategy of the wide middle has not succeeded yet. It is in fact the case that middle parties are losing voters to the parties outside the edges of the party system, says Ekengren Oscarsson.
C, whose party leader Annie Lööf said before the election that the party is prepared to sit in an S-led government, loses the largest share of voters to precisely S. Then M and L follow.
L is also losing voters to mainly S, followed by M and C.
– It seems that when parties say they want to cooperate with another party, they open the door for voter flight to that party. We see that when it comes to the Center Party, which wants to cooperate with the Social Democrats, but also when the Moderates invite the Sweden Democrats to cooperate, says Ekengren Oscarsson and continues:
– It does not seem like a good thing to invite cooperation because then you can lose voters, and that is exactly what has happened.