Vänster Party doubles support in some vulnerable areas

The Left Party sharply increased its support in several areas classified as vulnerable or particularly vulnerable, according to preliminary election figures reported by SVT. Nationally, the party appears to have gained 1.5 percentage points in the parliamentary election.

In Råslätt, a million-programme neighbourhood south of Jönköping classified as vulnerable by police, support for the Left Party was three times higher than in 2022. The party also doubled its support in parts of Rinkeby outside Stockholm, Ronna in Södertälje and Rosengård in Malmö municipality, all classified as particularly vulnerable areas.

Similar trends were seen in vulnerable areas elsewhere in the country.

“The Left Party has actively campaigned and mobilised in areas with large immigrant populations, which has evidently had an effect and increased turnout,” political scientist Jenny Madestam told SVT.

Madestam said the party had clearly targeted immigrant groups and people in vulnerable areas while positioning itself as a contrast to the Sweden Democrats.

Some of the Left Party’s new voters may previously have supported the Social Democrats, she said. “They have been more clearly left-wing than the Social Democrats.”

Scandals involving Left Party members who praised Hamas or spread antisemitism do not appear to have deterred voters. Madestam said voters expect parties on the political extremes to be more radical than other parties, and are therefore less likely to be upset by such controversies.

She compared this with the Sweden Democrats, where scandals that would cause outrage in other parties have also not had the same effect.