Swedes opt for pro-EU welfare reformer

Sweden’s opposition centre-right alliance has won a tight victory in Sunday’s general elections.

Moderate party leader Frederick Reinfeldt headed a four party centre-right alliance to secure 48.1 per cent of the vote, bettering incumbent prime minister Goran Persson’s Social Democrats and their allies 46.2 per cent.

“We’ve achieved the best result for a right-leaning party in modern times,” said Reinfeldt.

“We have made the biggest leap forward in one term and won by the biggest margin Sweden has ever seen.”

Reinfeldt, 41, run on a ticket promising to stimulate job growth by reforming the country’s hefty welfare system and reducing taxes.

He argued that Sweden’s official unemployment rate of six per cent was being masked by the country’s cradle-to grave welfare system, and that a truer figure could be as high as 20 per cent.

The Swedish press also said that many voters had ‘voter fatigue’ with Persson, who had been in power for more than a decade.

Reinfeldt, who will take over in October, will be seen by Europe’s capitals as more pro-EU that his predecessor, Persson. The Moderate party leader also favours Swedish Nato membership.

The social democrat defeat was the worst result in almost a century with Persson announcing he would resign as party leader.

EU commission vice president Margot Wallström has been tipped as a possible successor to Persson.

Leader of the European parliament’s centre right grouping Hans-Gert Poettering welcomed the “new vigour to Swedish European efforts” that the result would bring.

“I look forward to working for a stronger European cooperation together with the soon to be prime minister Fredrik Reinfeldt who I know as a devoted European,” said Poettering.

A spokesman for commission president José Manuel Barroso, said the Brussels chief would be contacting both Persson - to thank him for his work over the years - and Reinfeldt to congratulate him on the result, later on Monday.

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