SWEDEN: A centre-right alliance led by Moderate Party leader Fredrik Reinfeldt has won power in Sweden's parliamentary election

A centre-right alliance led by Moderate Party leader Fredrik Reinfeldt won power in Sweden's parliamentary election, ending 12 years of Social Democrat rule by vowing to lower taxes and refresh the welfare state. Reinfeldt, 41, who is set to be the next prime minister, declared victory late on Sunday after a tight election race. "It feels fantastic. At last I think most people will think. Well when I get back to my friends in the alliance it will be a good celebration," said Reinfeldt. Social Democrat Prime Minister Goran Persson, one of Europe's longest-serving leaders, conceded defeat after 10 years in office and said he would quit as chief of the party in which he has been active since his early 20s. "The election was a setback. For a long time it looked like we would be able to continue to govern. But now when the voting is done, the votes have been counted, we see that we are now in a minority position. I will take the consequences of that and will tomorrow go to the Riksdag Chairman and hand in mine and the government's resignation," said Persson. According to almost complete results from Sweden's Election Commission, the four-party opposition bloc had won 48.1 percent of votes to 46.2 percent for Persson and his allies. The result was a victory for the four-party bloc's pledges to stimulate job growth by fine-tuning, but not dismantling, the social welfare system brought in by the Social Democrats who have governed Sweden for six of the last seven decades. It has left Swedes with one of the world's heaviest tax burdens but also given them generous benefits. Reinfeldt says years of excessive benefits and high taxes have eroded Swedes' will to work. Despite Sweden's strong economic performance under the Social Democrats, opinion polls had shown an appetite for change in the Scandinavian country of just over 9 million people, with voters fatigued with Persson and a perceived lack of new ideas. The election was closely watched by other European Union governments facing the need for welfare reform because of ageing populations and creaking pension and healthcare systems.

ITN Source | September 18, 2006

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