Left Party leader rejects common election platform
Left Party leader Lars Ohly has indicated he is not interested in a common red-green election platform.
Instead he wants his party to meet voters as “a clear alternative on the left.”
Ohly rejects all negotiations and compromises with the Social Democratic and Green Parties prior to the 2010 parliamentary election.
“It would mean erasing our profile. Compromises and agreements are necessary if we are going to make a difference in society, but we’ll do that once we’re sitting in power and cooperating with others. But not before the election,” said Ohly to the newspaper Svenska Dagbladet ahead of the Left Party’s weekend strategy gathering.
Ohly ensured, however, that talks with the Social Democratic Party Leader Mona Sahlin and the two main spokespeople from the Green Party continue.
He also supports a common approach by the opposition parties in the Riksdag.
But in the next election campaign the Left Party should, according to Ohly, meet the voters as “a clear alternative on the left.”
“One reason why not enough people have confidence in us is that we don’t do enough to differentiate ourselves from other parties. We are on the way to realizing that we don’t have anything to gain by being less clear in our left-leaning policies, by being less of a feminist and socialist party,” he said.
On Saturday Green Party spokesperson Maria Wetterstrand demanded that the Left Party should make a decision as to whether “they want to be with us or not.”
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Instead he wants his party to meet voters as “a clear alternative on the left.”
Ohly rejects all negotiations and compromises with the Social Democratic and Green Parties prior to the 2010 parliamentary election.
“It would mean erasing our profile. Compromises and agreements are necessary if we are going to make a difference in society, but we’ll do that once we’re sitting in power and cooperating with others. But not before the election,” said Ohly to the newspaper Svenska Dagbladet ahead of the Left Party’s weekend strategy gathering.
Ohly ensured, however, that talks with the Social Democratic Party Leader Mona Sahlin and the two main spokespeople from the Green Party continue.
He also supports a common approach by the opposition parties in the Riksdag.
But in the next election campaign the Left Party should, according to Ohly, meet the voters as “a clear alternative on the left.”
“One reason why not enough people have confidence in us is that we don’t do enough to differentiate ourselves from other parties. We are on the way to realizing that we don’t have anything to gain by being less clear in our left-leaning policies, by being less of a feminist and socialist party,” he said.
On Saturday Green Party spokesperson Maria Wetterstrand demanded that the Left Party should make a decision as to whether “they want to be with us or not.”
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