The party, which has dominated Swedish politics for a century, is now facing an alarming reality in old heartlands like Uddevalla, just over an hour’s drive north of Gothenburg on Sweden’s west coast: Blue-collar voters, and those who have come of age since the docklands’ heyday, have begun turning toward the political right for economic answers.
“All you get with the Social Democrats is higher prices and fewer jobs,” said Elias Abrahamsson, a 21-year-old business student at Uddevalla’s central college. “They just don’t seem to have the right vision,” he said during a break between classes on a recent weekday.
Center left sinks in Europe
The struggles of Swedish Social Democrats in Uddevalla also underscore a broader challenge facing sister parties across Europe in the wake of a June European Parliament election that saw the party group lose seats for the second time in a row.
In Finland, the center left lost a national election last year to center-right and far-right opponents, leading popular leader Sanna Marin to step down. Also in 2023, the Socialist Workers’ Party of Pedro Sánchez in Spain saw a similarly poor election result and has been struggling to retain power.
In Germany, Chancellor Olaf Scholz of the German Social Democratic Party will face voters early next year — with current polling suggesting he’s off track to retain the chancellery.
In a worrying precedent for Scholz, the Swedish center right under Moderate Party leader Ulf Kristersson won national power from the Social Democrats in 2022 only with the backing of the far-right Sweden Democrats — a party long ostracized by mainstream parties due to its neo-Nazi roots and hard-line stance on immigration.
