The parties’ campaigns are very much about getting people to go to the polls and standing out against the other parties. One issue that the moderates highlighted is that snus is threatened, and they have not always been clear that the issue on the EU’s table concerns the white snus, and not the traditional brown snus.
– The whole snuff discussion is synonymous with the Swedish EU debate. Snuff has been an issue linked to membership since we joined the EU, and the parties are trying to profit from that. It’s the same with falu sausage, surströmming – national symbols are important for the parties to highlight in an EU election, says Mats Knutson in Politikbyrån.
EU elections 2024
Johan Pehrson (L): “A real friend of Sweden fights for a stronger Europe”
EU elections 2024 – follow the latest news
Jakob Ohlsson, campaign strategist Reform society, who previously worked with red-green parties, thinks that snus and similar issues are good to press in the campaigns.
– It works as a PR strategy, I think it’s brilliant to highlight snus in particular. It symbolizes a larger conflict – who will have power over Sweden? It taps into something that the voters recognize and mobilizes their own, he tells Politikbyrån.
Watch the video from Politikbyrån about three campaign issues that are not necessarily decided by the EU in the video above – and see more about the parties’ campaign tricks in Politikbyrån in SVT Play.