SD-offended liberal starts new party

She was previously the chair of the Liberal Women’s Association and was one of the liberals most critical of her party’s cooperation with the Sweden Democrats. Now she has left and started a new party.

The former top Liberal politician Malin Sjöberg Högrell has been appointed party leader of the newly formed party Liberal Initiative – The Folkpartisterna. The party presents itself as a new option for voters who want liberal policies outside the current political blocs.

Sjöberg Högrell has, in recent years, been one of the most prominent critics within the Liberals of the party’s collaboration with the Sweden Democrats. The conflict over the party’s political direction previously led her to resign from several major positions within the party.

In an interview with Ekot, Sjöberg Högrell describes the background to forming the party as a result of many voters lacking a clear alternative at the center of Swedish politics. She believes there is a void that none of the established parties fill.

The new party has grown from networks of former liberals across the country. Several people who left the Liberals after the party’s policy shift have in recent years become active in local political alternatives. Representatives from, among others, Flen, Habo, and Ulricehamn are now said to be involved in the national undertaking.

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A vacuum

The goal is to establish Liberal Initiative – Folkpartisterna as a nationwide party ahead of upcoming elections. According to Sjöberg Högrell, the party wants to unite voters who feel that today’s bloc politics has made it harder for liberal ideas to spread. She describes the party as an alternative for those who do not feel at home in either the current government base or among the opposition parties.

“There is a vacuum in Swedish politics,” Sjöberg Högrell says in the Ekot feature. At the same time, she emphasizes that the ambition is to build an independent liberal party with a clear centrist position in Swedish politics.

How much traction the new party will get remains to be seen. In recent years, the Swedish political landscape has seen several smaller parties formed, but few have managed to establish themselves nationally. Liberal Initiative – Folkpartisterna now hope to attract both former liberal voters and others seeking a new alternative in the political center.