Moderate Party

The Moderate Party (Swedish: Moderata samlingspartiet [mʊdɛˈrɑ̌ːta ˈsâmːlɪŋspaˌʈiːɛt] , lit. 'Moderate Coalition Party', M), commonly referred to as the Moderates (Swedish: Moderaterna [mʊdɛˈrɑ̌ːtɛɳa] ), is a liberal-conservative political party in Sweden. The party generally supports tax cuts, the free market, civil liberties and economic liberalism. Globally, it is a full member of the International Democracy Union and the European People's Party. The party was founded in 1904 as the General Electoral League (Allmänna valmansförbundet [ˈâlːmɛnːa ˈvɑ̂ːlmansfœrˌbɵndɛt] ) by a group of conservatives in the Riksdag, the Swedish parliament. The party was later known as The Right (Högern [ˈhø̌ːɡɛɳ] ; 1938–1952) and The Right Party (Högerpartiet [ˈhø̂ːɡɛrpaˌʈiːɛt] ; 1952–1969). During this time, the party was usually called the Conservative Party and adhered to a purely conservative and nationalistic ideologies, whereas today its ideology combines conservative and liberal ideas. After holding minor posts in centre-right governments, the Moderates eventually became the leading opposition party to the Swedish Social Democratic Party and since then those two parties have dominated Swedish politics. After the 1991 Swedish general election, party leader Carl Bildt formed a minority government, the first administration since 1930 to be headed by a member of the party, which lasted three years. The party returned to government under leader and Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, after the 2006 and 2010 general elections. In 2010, the party was the leading member of the Alliance, a centre-right coalition, along with the Centre Party (C), the Christian Democrats (KD) and the Liberal People's Party (FP), and obtained its best result ever (30.1%), despite the coalition not being able to obtain majority. The current chairman of the party, Ulf Kristersson, was elected at a special party congress on 1 October 2017, following Anna Kinberg Batra's sudden resignation. Kinberg Batra had replaced Reinfeldt, Prime Minister from 2006 to...