Progress Party

The Progress Party (, FsP), later the Swedish Progress Party (, FsP) was a minor Swedish political party that existed in various forms from 1968 to the 2000s, when local parties merged with the Sweden Democrats, or developed into distinct local parties. It was based mostly in Scania, although it at times had active local chapters in other places. For a time, it saw itself as a Swedish equivalent of the Progress Party in Denmark and Progress Party in Norway. Early years The party was founded on 6 November 1968 by Bertil Rubin, a former Member of Parliament for the Centre Party, and the remains of the minor parties Medborgerlig samling and Samling för framsteg. The party soon had 10,000 members and planned to run for the 1970 general election, but it failed because of economic problems. The party won only three mandates in Klippan and was practically dissolved as a national party following the defeat. The party lost all its mandates in Klippan after the 1973 local elections and was largely just active in the municipality of Motala through the 1970s. The party was refounded at a party congress in Norrköping in 1979, with Nils Lindgren of Motala as party chairman. The party for the first time ran in an election with a national list. In 1979 and 1980, the party was visited by Mogens Glistrup of the Danish Progress Party and evolved into an outspokenly right-wing populist party through the 1980s, inspired by him. For the 1982 general election, the party changed its name to the Swedish Progress Party under the new chairman Stefan Herrmann, with chapters in Motala and Stockholm. Stickers then included messages such as "AIDS comes from abroad", "the woman back to the stove" and "let the booze free". In the 1988 general election, the party had its strongest base in Östergötland. Two Progress parties The Swedish Progress Party was founded as a national party in a congress in Helsingborg on 11 March 1989. The party then added to its base defectors from the Centre Democrats in Scania, Mittpartiet in Ånge, Löntagarepartiet in Åstorp and Kommunens Väl in Skurup. Tony Wiklander of Löntagarepartiet was elected as new party chairman, an established local politician in Åstorp with a history in the Left Party and the Social Democrats.