When an assassin's bullet cut down popular Prime Minister Olof Palme in 1986, many Swedes assumed that it had crippled his ruling Social Democratic Party as well. Scandals plagued the government of his successor, the stolid Ingvar Carlsson, and a swing toward conservatism among young voters seemed to make a change all but inevitable.
In last week's elections, however, Swedes confounded the pollsters by again backing the left. Although the Social Democrats lost three of their 159 seats in the 349-member parliament, their allies the Communists won 21, two more than before. At the same time, the Environmental Green Party captured...
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