1998 - The Election Campaign is Primarily Waged among Opinion Leaders

Party strength was already cemented at the beginning of election year 1998—and thus before the start of the actual campaign phase—a situation that was confirmed by the election outcome on September 27. Throughout the entire campaign, the Social Democrats were preferred by a steady share of about 40 percent of the population, giving the party a clear lead over the Christian Democrats, who only managed to surpass the 35 percent mark in voting intentions (party vote) a few weeks prior to election day. Among opinion leaders, the two major parties were neck-and-neck throughout the entire campaign, with the findings of one survey showing a greater percentage intending to vote for the Christian Democrats and the findings of the next showing a majority of opinion leaders leaning toward the Social Democrats. On the whole, however, there was no clear trend throughout the entire campaign.