DistantNews
Support us
🇸🇪 Sweden /Elections & Politics

He wants a second chance at entering Sweden’s parliament

From Svenska Dagbladet · () Swedish

Translated from Swedish and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

News Named sources Context piece
  • Örebropartiet is targeting Sweden’s Riksdag through a rule requiring at least 12 percent of votes in one constituency, in this case Örebro County.
  • Political scientists say no party has previously cleared the threshold, although some have come close.
  • The party could be gaining ground regionally, but a national parliamentary breakthrough appears more difficult and would require about 24,000 votes.

Örebropartiet is trying to enter Sweden’s parliament through what political scientist Henrik Ekengren Oscarsson calls a “second chance” for regional representation. The party must win at least 12 percent of the vote in one of Sweden’s 29 constituencies, and it is focusing on Örebro County.

No party has managed to cross that threshold so far. Örebropartiet previously won seats in Örebro’s municipal assembly in 2018 and regional assembly in 2022, and now party leader Markus Allard is aiming higher.

It is very unusual for a party to challenge the threshold.

· Henrik Ekengren OscarssonHe assesses Örebropartiet’s attempt to enter the Riksdag through the regional threshold.

Allard was expelled from the Left Party in 2013 after liking a Facebook post by the far-left group Revolutionary Front. He later founded Örebropartiet. The party describes its current politics as difficult to place on the left-right scale. Its priorities include an extremely restrictive migration policy, lower politicians’ salaries and more referendums.

You are a damn coward. You are a damn fool. You are an idiot through and through.

· Markus AllardHe directed the insult at Moderate opposition councillor Sebastian Cehlin during an escalated regional assembly debate.

The party has gained attention largely through Allard’s confrontational behavior in municipal and regional assemblies. A regional assembly meeting was halted in the winter after a budget dispute escalated, with Allard directing insults at Moderate opposition councillor Sebastian Cehlin. The exchange later appeared on SVT’s political satire program “Svenska nyheter.”

Jan Olsson, a professor at Örebro University, says Allard’s approach amounts to a permanent election campaign, but makes cooperation difficult. A poll published by Nerikes Allehanda suggested the party could roughly triple its regional support to about 15 percent. At parliamentary level, however, an Infostat poll reported by Omni gave “other party” just 6.3 percent in Örebro County. Oscarsson says the party would need roughly 24,000 votes, particularly outside Örebro itself.

It is like a permanent election campaign for him. But no one wants to cooperate with him, so he does not get anything done politically.

· Jan OlssonThe Örebro University professor describes the consequences of Allard’s confrontational style.
About this summary

Originally published by Svenska Dagbladet in Swedish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

More Stories

From Our Blog