Moderates lose as Green Party gains: poll

Support for the Moderate Party dropped significantly in June, while Sweden’s Green Party reached heights not seen since the 2006 Riksdag elections, a new poll shows.

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According to the most recent poll by TV4/Novus Opinion, support for the Moderates fell by 5.1 percent since the end of May.

The new figures constitute a break with the party’s string of opinion poll successes throughout the winter and spring.

Now the Moderates garner the sympathies of only 24.4 percent of the electorate, with the largest drop in support coming among women, students, and rural voters.

And despite a 1.4 percent rise in support for the Liberals (Folkpartiet), the combined support for the centre-right governing Alliance parties has dropped to 42.1 percent, giving the opposition parties a 7.6 percent advantage, according to the survey.

Among the opposition parties, the Green Party polled the best in June, boosting support by 2.2 percent to 9.5 percent – the party’s best result since the last parliamentary elections.

The downward trend continued for the Left Party, however, which saw support fall by 1.6 percent, while the Social Democrats results were down by 0.3 percent.

The overall results of the TV4/Novus opinion poll for June are as follows, with the percentage change from the previous month in parentheses:

Moderate Party: 24.4 percent (-5.1); Liberal Party: 7.9 (+1.4); Centre Party: 5.3 (-0.1); Christian Democrats: 4.5 (+0.2); Social Democrats: 34.3 (-0.3); Left Party: 5.8 (-1.6); Green Party: 9.5 (+2.2); Sweden Democrats: 3.5 (+0.9); Pirate Party: 2.4 (-).

Only the changes for the Moderate Party and the Green Party are statistically significant.

A separate survey conducted by the Synovate polling firm also showed a rise in support for the Liberals and Greens, as well as reduced support for the Left Party and the Moderates – although the drop in support for the Moderates was much smaller – 1.6 percent – compared to that measured in the TV4/Novus poll.

The overall results of the Synovate poll are as follows, with the percentage change from the previous month in parentheses:

Moderate Party: 28.1 percent (-1.2); Liberal Party: 7.8 (+1.0); Centre Party: 5.4 (-0.7); Christian Democrats: 4.0 (-0.5); Social Democrats: 34.0 (+0.3); Left Party: 5.4 (-1.6); Green Party: 8.0 (+1.5); Sweden Democrats: 3.3 (-0.3); Pirate Party: 2.4 (-).

The Synovate results are based on telephone interviews with 2,289 voters conducted June 9th to June 24th. Of voters interviewed, 18.2 percent said they were undecided.