In the latest comparison of TV4 Väljaroponion, the Center Party is approaching the four percent barrier at breakneck speed. The Center Party’s new leader Muharrem Demirok has not received the injection of voter support that the party needs – and since the 2022 election, the party has lost around one in three voters. – My goal is to finish first in Mora and get us over there and get the wreath around my neck. So it is a long-term journey we are on and the journey has only just begun, says the C leader. There are many centrists who will be frustrated when they read the results of the latest TV4 Väljaropinion. It is enough to go back a few years to realize why. Midsummer week 2017 was extra fun for former center leader Annie Lööf. The party then reached a support of 13.1 percent in TV4’s voter opinion, and at that time it was considerably larger than the archenemy the Left Party, which reached 7.7 percent of the voters’ votes. Two elections later, the roles are reversed. Although the Left Party has roughly the same support today (7.9%), the Center Party with its 4.2 percent is only about a third as big as the party was in 2017. The party has thus lost two out of three voters in a few years. To top it all off, the Sweden Democrats became the Riksdag’s second largest party. Where then is the reason for the collapse of the Center Party? The explanations are spelled “The broad middle policy” and Muharrem Demirok. Lööf was accused of creating political chaos It is difficult to find a clear point when the decline of the Center Party began, but the January agreement has certainly been decisive. When it was concluded, the Center Party changed sides, from the Alliance to the Social Democrats. According to Annie Lööf herself, the January agreement was a political win – the Center Party forced the Social Democrats to govern on “center politics”. But the January agreement also had a price. Many potential voters had difficulty understanding Lööf’s adamant stance against both the Left Party and the Sweden Democrats. The parliamentary situation required that one of the parties must gain influence. The result was that many blamed Annie Lööf for having caused the political chaos that came into force since then. Regardless of whether it is right or wrong to blame Lööf for the chaos, it is she who has been made to bear the dog’s head by many. That’s what counts in the measurements. In addition to this, the Center’s own election analysis showed that the Center lost among its core voters in the countryside, above all to the Sweden Democrats and the Social Democrats. An unknown party leader Then came the election in the fall of 2022. Many centrists in the old People’s Movement Party had worked hard for many months to succeed better than the last election. Instead, it was a disappointment – and it reached a paltry 6.7 percent. It was considered so bad that Annie Lööf chose to quit. It was a decline from the election before by more than two percentage points. A new party leader could lift the Center to new heights, it was hoped. The hope was personified at the extraordinary meeting in Helsingborg to Muharrem Demirok. But two months later, with the downright lousy figures in the latest survey, many centrists are surely starting to get nervous out in the cabins. Why then has Muharrem Demirok not produced any “Murre effect”? There are several reasons. He got off to a lousy start. Demirok wasn’t even elected before it was revealed that on two separate occasions he balded two people relatively unprovoked. The abuse convictions did indeed take place in his youth, but Muharrem Demirok chose to keep this secret from the election committee when he was to be appointed party leader candidate. Another reason is that Demirok took over from Annie Lööf. Not an easy task because many within the party regard Lööf as something of a superstar. The matter does not get any easier when Muharrem Demirok is almost completely unknown to the majority of Swedes. A problem that will resolve itself with time. Eagerly waiting for the “Murre effect” When Muharrem Demirok was asked about the latest measurement, he jokingly replied that “it’s like a Vasalopp”. Demirok is right that it is a long time until the next election in 2026. Then the Swedish people will know who he is. But today there are certainly many centrists who are unsure whether they have really chosen the right party leader, they are anxiously waiting for when the “Murre effect” will come. The only effect the change of party leader has had is that Center voters have fled the party – contrary to what the members had hoped for when, after some debate, he was elected at the extraordinary general meeting two months ago. In the player above: This is how Muharrem Demirok comments on the numbers.
t4-general
Disaster figures for the Center Party – waiting for the “Murre effect”
