The Green Party (, commonly referred to in Swedish as Miljöpartiet or MP) is a political party in Sweden based on green politics.
Sparked by the anti-nuclear power movement following the 1980 nuclear power referendum, the party was founded in 1981 out of a discontent with the existing parties' environmental policies. In 1988 general election they won seats in the Swedish Riksdag for the first time, capturing 5.5 percent of the vote, and becoming the first new party to enter parliament in seventy years. Three years later, they dropped back below the 4 percent threshold.
In 1994, they returned to parliament again and since have retained representation there. The party is represented nationally by two spokespeople, always one man and one woman. These roles are currently held by Per Bolund and Märta Stenevi.
Between 3 October 2014 and 30 November 2021, the Green Party was a part of the Social Democratic led government. This was the first time the Greens have entered government in its history. The Greens left the government after the right-wing opposition parties' budget for 2022 was passed in the Riksdag, and the government's own budget failed to pass.
In the 2018 general election, the Greens received 4.4% of the vote and 16 seats, making the party the smallest in the Riksdag. Despite this, the party was still able to maintain its place in government.
Ideology
Fundamental principles
In their party platform, the Greens describe their ideology as being based on "a solidarity that can be expressed in three ways: solidarity with animals, nature, and the ecological system", "solidarity with coming generations", and "solidarity with all of the world's people". A Green analysis of society is based on a holistic view – everything is connected and interdependent.
The platform then describes these solidarities being expressed in "several fundamental ideas", these being participatory democracy, ecological wisdom, social justice, children's rights, circular economy, global justice, nonviolence, equality and feminism, animal rights, self-reliance and self-administration, freedom, and long-sightedness. The Swedish Green Party has its roots in the environmental, solidarity, women's rights and peace movements.
Climate change and the environment
The Green Party was the first political party in Sweden to raise the issue of climate change. Fighting climate change is a major policy issue for the party. For example, the party's main criticism of The Alliance's 2010 election manifesto was the "entirely astonishing" lack of effort in fighting climate change, and in 2013, the party announced a budget proposal that was dominated by a 49 billion kronor "climate package". The party supports a general shift in taxation policy, towards high taxes on environmentally unfriendly or unsustainable products and activities, hoping to thus influence people's behavior towards the more sustainable.
Nuclear power
The anti-nuclear movement was a major factor in the party's creation. The party's party platform reads that "we oppose the construction of new reactors in Sweden, or an increase in the output of existing reactors, and instead want to begin immediately phasing out nuclear power." MP Per Bolund clarified in 2010 that the party "does not propose shutting down nuclear power reactors today, but rather phasing them out as new and renewable electricity is phased in."
European integration
The party was initially opposed to membership in the European Union, and sought a new referendum on the issue. The party's EU-opposition captured them 17 percent of the votes in the 1995 European Parliament election, the first following Sweden’s EU accession. The Greens included withdrawal from the EU in their party platform as recently as 2006.
This policy was abolished in a September 2008 internal party referendum. However, the party remains somewhat Eurosceptic. The section of the party platform on the subject opens by citing how decentralization and making decisions as locally as reasonably possible is a central part of green politics. It continues to state that the Greens "are warm adherents to international cooperation. We want to see Europe as a part of a world of democracies, where people move freely over borders, and where people and countries trade and cooperate with each other."
Symbol
The Green Party's party symbol is the dandelion.