Marmorstein: It is gossiping that Sjöstedt may be about to retire

How serious is the internal battle within V?

- This is not a new criticism. There has long been a group in the party that thinks that Jonas Sjöstedt does not have a sufficiently radical line that he has been too focused on making the Left Party a government-capable party. Several of them were also critical of the Left Party passing through Stefan Löfven as prime minister after the settlement with the Center Party and the Liberals, says SVT's political reporter Elisabeth Marmorstein.

She continues:

- Next year the party will have a congress and now this group is pushing for a new focus. But since it is at the same time gossiping that Jonas Sjöstedt may be about to leave, both inside and outside the Left Party, this was perceived by many as a way to advance the positions in an upcoming party leader's struggle.

But is that true, will Jonas Sjöstedt resign?

- Some time he will, no one sits forever. But when he gets questions about it, he firmly denies that it is relevant and says he would like to continue.

Why are these speculations popping up right now?

- One reason is that his family moved to Vietnam where his wife is an ambassador and of course it is not entirely straightforward to have his children on the other side of the globe. Another reason is that the collaboration between the government and C and L closed out V from influence and made them come even further from Sjöstedt's long-term goal of one day taking a seat in an S-led government. Apparently, more than that is not required for it to start talking.

What would it mean for V if Sjöstedt left?

- That they lose a party leader with high confidence among the voters, he is currently in a shared second place in the confidence league with Stefan Löfven, according to Novus which is not quite common for a Left leader. But what else happens is too early to speculate, he may very well remain for several more years.

- But what one can note is that Jonas Sjöstedt has devoted his party leadership to making the Left Party a more government-capable and responsible party, where the key word is pragmatism rather than class struggle. A redder version of the Social Democrats if you want. Looking at voter support has been a successful strategy, even though it has not gone home in the more radical parts of the party.