The Left Party in Gothenburg: Fold the government

This weekend, 1,300 left-wing parties have discussed the party's policy in all important areas. These have included capitalism, socialism, power and ownership, and the proposal for a new party program.

And it has taken place in Gothenburg, where the party district is across the current direction of the party leadership. The district already believed in the formation of the government that the party leadership chose errors that brought forth the government.

- We are basically critical of this. Opposing opposition is very difficult at the same time as a government has emerged. You have to ask at what price. What difference does it make if you bring out a social democratic government that runs a bourgeois policy compared to if the Alliance had done so, says John Edström (V).

- It is difficult to criticize a government that will make fundamental changes in welfare at the same time as it was released, he says.

The decisive factor is whether party leader Jonas Sjöstedt stands firm on his ultimatum to dare to fold the government if it submits proposals for impaired labor law and market rents, believes John Edström (V).

- It is up to evidence now that the proposals come. These are proposals that fundamentally change Sweden.

The left party must then fold the government, even if it means at the price that it will be a moderate government supported by SD.

- Yes I think so. Basically, they will be running roughly the same bourgeois policy. If we are to be able to show an alternative to citizens and what society we want to build, then we must be able to do so without being criticized at the same time for proposing a bourgeois policy.

The Gothenburg district is not alone in criticizing the party leadership. Last fall, 23 heavy left parties, including the chairmen of the Greater Stockholm, Malmö and Helsingborg party districts, criticized the party for not pursuing a sufficiently radical policy.

"It is not our role to support a social democratic power hold at any price," they wrote in a debate article in SvD.

Party leader Jonas Sjöstedt (V) does not agree that V cannot be a credible opposition party.

- I think it's totally wrong. We are proposing a different policy, we are voting against the government's policy. To contribute to the right being given power by the right, which they had gained in January, it has given us much less opportunity to influence politics, he tells TT.

Sjöstedt does not give any clear message whether, as the Gothenburg district wants, he is prepared to convict the Löfven government on the proposals on labor rights and market rents, even if it leads to an M-government supported by SD.

- The goal is that these proposals should never become reality, that we should stop that policy. But it is clear that if the government insists on pushing through politics in Parliament, then they can face a new election situation, says Sjöstedt.