Social Democrats face calls to rethink election strategy

The Social Democrats face internal criticism that their election campaign put too much weight on Magdalena Andersson and the threat of Sweden Democrat ministers, and too little on the policies they wanted voters to choose.

Former MP Veronica Palm told SVT that the approach had failed in both the 2022 campaign and this year’s election. Elfva Barrio, who chairs the party’s student organisation, argued that it should persuade people to back social-democratic policies rather than concentrate on disaffected centre-right voters.

Anders Ygeman defended the campaign’s first objective: removing Ulf Kristersson’s government. He acknowledged that other parties on the same side had grown while the Social Democrats had lost support.

Ygeman said the campaign would be evaluated once government formation had settled. The party is therefore facing a dispute about its electoral direction while trying to assemble support for a new government.

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