Voters of foreign origin supported left-wing parties — The Local Sweden
In Sweden, voters of foreign origin were significantly more likely to support the Social Democratic Party and the Left Party than right-wing political forces. In a column for The Local Sweden, Mandy Pipher called this behaviour a normal part of the democratic electoral process.
Post-election statements
Pipher writes that after the first electoral decline in the history of the Sweden Democrats party, its leading representatives placed responsibility on immigrant voters. According to the columnist, some party representatives blamed Sweden's new citizens who had obtained citizenship during the previous four years of Tidö.
At a post-election press conference, Sweden Democrats leader Jimmie Åkesson said that the Social Democratic Party and the Left Party had mobilised Islamist voters. In an article for The Spectator, Moderate Party MP Fredrik Kärrholm described 97.6% of votes cast for these two parties in the Rosengård district of Malmö as “Saddam Hussein numbers”.
More current news is available on the UA.News Telegram channel Telegram.
Data and the columnist's position
As Pipher notes, fact checks by public broadcaster SVT and The Local journalist Richard Orange showed that the claim about whom new citizens voted for is unfounded and cannot be verified. At the same time, these fact checks confirmed that voters of foreign origin were substantially more likely to vote for the Social Democratic Party and the Left Party.
The author recalls that in the 2022 election, voters born outside Sweden and of non-European origin were more likely to vote for right-wing forces than in the 2026 election. In her view, parties seeking to gain the support of immigrant voters should analyse their own programmes and their impact on these citizens' economic and family interests, rather than question the legitimacy of their voting.
