The Centre Party’s strategy is a jackpot for Dadgostar

A proposed centrist government may offer Nooshi Dadgostar the most useful campaign help she could receive before Sweden’s election. Tomas Ramberg argues that the Centre Party’s idea gives the Left Party leader a way to turn a difficult question about government participation back onto Social Democratic leader Magdalena Andersson.

The Left Party’s electoral opportunity, according to Ramberg, comes from Social Democratic voters who want to pull Andersson to the left and may therefore vote for the Left Party. At the same time, speculation about a government without the Left Party eases the pressure on Dadgostar to explain how far she would go to enter government.

The Centre Party leader, Elisabeth Thand Ringqvist, has proposed a possible coalition involving the Social Democrats, Centre Party and Christian Democrats. Ramberg describes the idea as useful to Dadgostar even though it does not yet have willing participants. For the Left Party, he writes, the proposal is sufficiently unappealing to use in the campaign.

If Andersson does not reject the proposal, Dadgostar can argue that voters who want to stop Andersson from pursuing bourgeois policies should support the Left Party. She can also respond to questions about her government demand by saying that if Andersson wants a centrist government without the Left Party, there is little Dadgostar can do to prevent it.

The outcome will ultimately depend on the numbers. If the Left Party grows and remains larger than the Centre Party, Ramberg says Andersson would be forced to include it. If the Left Party falls behind the Centre Party, or loses support, Dadgostar would have less leverage in negotiations. A threat to force a new election would also become less credible if it risked pushing the Left Party out of parliament.