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| Photo: Sveriges Kommunistiska Parti |
With less than a month to go before Sweden’s 2026 general election, Communist Party of Sweden (SKP) chairman Andreas Sörensen has denounced what he described as a political system designed to protect the established parliamentary parties and marginalize forces that challenge capitalism.
Speaking in Stockholm on August 15, Sörensen argued that Sweden’s much-praised democracy rests on deeply unequal conditions.
Speaking in Stockholm on August 15, Sörensen argued that Sweden’s much-praised democracy rests on deeply unequal conditions.
Parties that surpass 1% in a parliamentary election receive publicly funded ballot papers distributed nationwide, while smaller parties must finance and distribute their own. Parties above 2.5% also receive substantial state funding, while the 4% threshold for entering parliament further shields the established political forces.
Sörensen also pointed to practical obstacles faced by the communists, including cases in which SKP ballot papers have allegedly been hidden or poorly distributed at polling stations. “The smaller the party, the greater the work,” he stressed, arguing that the system channels voters toward the already established parties.
But his criticism went beyond electoral rules. According to the SKP leader, all parliamentary parties — from the Left Party to the Sweden Democrats — ultimately serve the same fundamental purpose: stabilizing Swedish capitalism. Behind their different rhetoric, he argued, none offers an alternative to exploitation, militarization or the transfer of resources from social needs to military spending.
“The Swedish democracy is above all a democracy for the big parties,” Sörensen said, accusing the parliamentary forces of defending a system in which workers are offered different political colors but no break with capitalism.
Despite the obstacles, Sörensen insisted that the communists would not retreat. The SKP, he said, does not view politics as something confined to election day: its struggle continues “every day, all year round.”
For the Swedish communists, the election campaign is therefore only one front in a broader class struggle. As Sörensen put it, the future is not something handed down from above — it must be built through organization, resistance and collective struggle.
Sörensen also pointed to practical obstacles faced by the communists, including cases in which SKP ballot papers have allegedly been hidden or poorly distributed at polling stations. “The smaller the party, the greater the work,” he stressed, arguing that the system channels voters toward the already established parties.
But his criticism went beyond electoral rules. According to the SKP leader, all parliamentary parties — from the Left Party to the Sweden Democrats — ultimately serve the same fundamental purpose: stabilizing Swedish capitalism. Behind their different rhetoric, he argued, none offers an alternative to exploitation, militarization or the transfer of resources from social needs to military spending.
“The Swedish democracy is above all a democracy for the big parties,” Sörensen said, accusing the parliamentary forces of defending a system in which workers are offered different political colors but no break with capitalism.
Despite the obstacles, Sörensen insisted that the communists would not retreat. The SKP, he said, does not view politics as something confined to election day: its struggle continues “every day, all year round.”
For the Swedish communists, the election campaign is therefore only one front in a broader class struggle. As Sörensen put it, the future is not something handed down from above — it must be built through organization, resistance and collective struggle.
