The Swedish Centre Party

This is Axel Pehrsson: a farmer from Bramstorp in southern Sweden. In the past he sat in Parliament with the Liberal Coalition Party, but now he has changed to another party: The Farmers Association. He, like many other farmers, thinks that farmers don’t have enough say in things. He wants to change that. While the other political parties are founded on ideologies: Conservatism, socialism, and Liberalism, the Farmers Association doesn’t care very much about ideology.

They are in favour of what is good for farmers. They want to protect farmers’ interests. The Social Democrats have won the election, but they don’t have a clear majority. They need support from other parties to get their proposals through parliament. Axel Pehrsson-Bramstorp comes with an offer: his party will accept some of the Social Democrats' propositions, if the Social Democrats agree to something that is really important to The Farmers Association.

The Farmers Association wants to tax imports and restrict foreign trade, to protect farmers in Sweden. The Social Democrats want to reduce the number of people who are unemployed by engaging them in special government programmes. The two parties reach an agreement and accept each other's proposals. The other parties think this is not the correct way of doing things. They call it cow-trading.

But the ‘cow-trading’ goes ahead. Axel Pehrsson-Bramstorp becomes the Minister of Agriculture, and also the Prime Minister for a short period. Throughout the 20th century, farmers become a smaller section of the population. Now, the Farmers Association seeks to be a party not just for farmers, but for all ‘country folk’. They present an idealised and nationalistic image of rural Sweden in the olden days.

They say they want to "protect the Swedish people" from "inferior, foreign, racial elements." These racist phrases are included in the party’s manifesto during the troubled times of World War II, but have no concrete effect on the country’s politics. In the 1950s, the Farmers Association performs poorly in elections. They cooperate with the Social Democrats for a short time, and change their name to The Centre Party: The party in the middle. In the 1970s, the Centre Party is against Sweden’s use of nuclear power. That brings in new votes.

In the 1976 election, the question of nuclear power is the most important issue for voters. The leader of the Centre Party, Thorbjörn Fälldin, becomes prime minister in a centre-right coalition government. Centre-right governments usually want a market economy. But the Centre Party decides that it should not apply to agriculture. The price of milk for example, will be negotiated between the state and the National Federation of Farmers.

The other parties do not like this. They want to change - reform - agricultural policy. In 1990, the Parliament decides that supply and demand - not the state - should set prices for agricultural products. The market becomes deregulated. The Centre Party joins yet another centre-right coalition government during the 1990s.

Then, the Social Democrats return to power with support from the Centre Party. Once again, the two parties pick and choose proposals they can agree on. "More cow-trading!" grumble the others. Maud Olofsson is elected leader of the party in 2001. She is not interested in working with the Social Democrats. Instead, she gathers the centre-right parties under the name of The Alliance.

The Alliance wins the 2006 and 2010 elections. In 2011, Annie Lööf takes over as leader of the party. She is strictly in favour of a market economy, with no regulations or state support. The Centre Party is no longer in the political centre but is clearly on the right. Annie Lööf promises that she will never support a Social Democratic government.

They also try to broaden their electorate. Despite starting as a rural party, they begin targeting new voters in the big cities. Some members get worried and ask themselves: "Have we stopped being the party for the farmers and country folk?" So the party begins to talk about small businesses, the environment, and rural communities again. The Centre Party also promises to do everything they can to ensure that the Sweden Democrats, now a large party, do not gain any political power in Sweden. After the 2018 parliamentary election, no party has its own majority.

But after an agreement with the Centre Party and the Liberals, the Social Democrats and the Green Party can form a government. The agreement is called the January Agreement. It gives the Centre Party and the Liberals a chance to influence certain political issues, despite the fact that the government is governed by Social Democrats. On January 18 2019, Parliament votes in favour of the Social Democrats' Stefan Löfven becoming Prime Minister. What does the Centre Party really stand for?

One of their primary concerns is preventing the Sweden Democrats from influencing Swedish politics. And they want to be a party for the countryside, [1] with a liberal ideology [2] that promotes a free market. At the same time, the Centre Party has supported a Social Democratic government. Is that possible? …is probably a question many centre voters are thinking about today.