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Majority favour excluding Left from coalition

TT/Peter Vinthagen Simpson
TT/Peter Vinthagen Simpson - [email protected]
Majority favour excluding Left from coalition

Support for a two-party left coalition government between the Green Party and the Social Democrats, has increased. Lars Ohly's tough stance has taken its toll on voter support, a new poll by Synovate Temo/Dagens Nyheter shows.

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52 percent of voters are in favour of a coalition government between the Green Party and Social Democrats in the event of an opposition victory at the next general election in 2010. 59 percent of Social Democrat voters are in favour of a two-party coalition with the Green party, an increase of 13 percentage points since the previous poll in May 2006.

Support among Social Democrat voters for a coalition government with the Left Party has declined however, from 65 percent in May 2006 to 58 percent in the latest poll. 47 percent oppose a SocDem-Left-Green coalition.

The decline in support for a SocDem-Left government has occurred among voters that have switched allegiance to the Social Democrats from the Alliance parties since the election. Around 70 percent of voters that supported one of the Alliance parties in the 2006 election are against an SocDem-Left government. Around the same figure support a coalition with the Green Party. 60 percent of this group are opposed to a three party SocDem-Green-Left coalition government.

The Local reported on February 12th that Left Party leader Lars Ohly had rejected a common election platform with the Social Democrats and the Green Party. Since the 2006 election the Green Party has conducted a concerted campaign to reach agreement with the Social Democrats on key issues. The new poll indicates that the Green Party approach is paying dividends among voters while Ohly's tough stance has taken its toll on support for the Left Party.

The next election is set to be fought in the middle ground and support from the swing voters will be crucial in determining its outcome, writes Dagens Nyheter. The debate over who Social Democratic leader Mona Sahlin is prepared to build a government with therefore stands to be a hot topic.

Synovate's poll is based on a survey of 1,011 people carried out from February 18th to February 21st.

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