"The 1948 election was shaped by Russian expansionism, massive price increases and a polarized debate", writes Westerberg in Smedjan (in Swedish).

"The vitriol in the media, the entrenched hostility between the two political blocs and the business community's campaigning against the policies of the Social Democratic government made the second chamber election in 1948 one of the most fiercely contested ever. The rightwing opposition and the business community believed that the government mismanaged the country and that dictatorship and a planned economy were looming, while the government accused the opposition leader, the Liberal Party's Bertil Ohlin, of being a lackey of big finance."