World Notes SWEDEN

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 an impressive 20 seats to become the first new party to break into Sweden's parliament since 1917. The ruling party clearly benefited from Sweden's current economic prosperity. Said Gothenburg University professor Soren Holmberg, a leading election analyst: "Swedes voted with their wallets this year."