Tidningsmakt och politiska organisationer : den borgerliga samlingsrörelsen i Fyrstadskretsen 1962-1968

Sammanfattning: The big Malmö newpapers Sydsvenska Dagbladet and Kvällsposten, both owned by the family Wahlgren, involved themselves heavily in Swedish party politics in the 1960s. The Social Democrats had in 1962 been in almost permanent power in Sweden since 1932. There was a desperate wish for change in power among many Swedishy voters. In this atmosphere Olof Wahlgren, Sydsvenska Dagbladet´s deputy editor, took the lead to try to force together the three non-Socialist parties, the Conservative Party (högern), the People´s Party (folkpartiet) and the Centre Party (centerpartiet). First he supported election co-operation between the three parties in the constituency "the Four City District" (Fyrstadskretsen), comprising Malmö, Lund, Helsingborg and Landskrona. When this failed, mainly because the Centre Party did not want to co-operate with the Conservatives, the family Wahlgren founded "the Citizens´ Alliance" (Medborgerlig Samling). There were some experienced politicians but also many with more enthusiasm than knowledge. The Wahlgren papers threw their whole weight behind the Alliance in an American influenced election campaign. The Alliance got in 1964 64 000 votes, 28 per cent of total constituency votes, which was seen as a declaration of support for inter-party co-operation. The Citizens´ Alliance and co-operation among the non-socialist parties continued in different ways also in the elections 1966 and 1968. Of great importance for Swedish political life was that Sweden, mainly thanks to Bertil Ohlin, the leader of the People´s Party, got a new constitution with a songle-chamber parliament, elected on a strictly proportional basis. That contributed to change of power in Sweden in 1976.