Social Democrats leader rejects plagiarism claim from Greens over campaign ad

Swedish Social Democrats leader Magdalena Andersson dismissed accusations of plagiarism on Saturday after the Green Party threatened legal action over a campaign advertisement, public broadcaster SVT reports.

The Green Party alleged in an interview with Aftonbladet that the Social Democrats had copied their campaign film, with party secretary Katrin Wissing telling SVT’s Politik, politik, politik! programme: “When I saw that film, it was very clear they had seen and plagiarised it.”

Andersson rejected the claim, telling SVT: “I might not call it plagiarism, but we can have that discussion.”

Both ads address the perceived stigma around voting for their respective parties. The dispute comes amid broader tensions between the two left-leaning parties, with political commentator Mats Knutson noting on the same programme that “the Social Democrats are utterly fed up with the Greens.”

The row was featured in this week’s episode of Politik, politik, politik!, SVT’s weekly political roundup hosted by Daniel Ingmo and Erik Nilsson.