An Israeli flag, a "We can do it!" poster and a pair of boxing gloves has been furnished by Gulan Avci (L) in his office in the city hall. But an unpacked moving box and a couple of withered flowers bear witness to a hectic election campaign for the newly appointed group leader.
In March, party leader Simona Mohamsson announced that she welcomes SD in government – a reversal from the Liberals' previous line. The announcement led to several defections in protest around the country, including from the long-time SD-critical L-profile and the then group leader in Stockholm, Jan Jönsson. The majority of his staff left with him.
When Gulan Avci was elected as Jönsson's successor, some in the party saw the risk that she would reverse the issue of SD. As a member of the Riksdag, she has worked on developing the Tidö Agreement and has called the cooperation in the Riksdag responsible. But in Stockholm, she does not see an SD collaboration as a possibility.
She describes the first time as an opposition councilor in June as revolutionary.
- You shouldn't stick under the chair with the fact that it was a trying time last spring. There were many members who left, and more who joined. Despite the conditions, it is still a good atmosphere for those who stayed behind, says Avci.
In the city of Stockholm, L gets 5 percent of the votes according to the preliminary results. It is a decrease of 2.97 percentage points since the election in 2022. Most likely, there will be a continued red-green government this term as well, since they have a majority and the Green Party refuses to cooperate with the alliance parties (KD, L, M and C).
Avci says she is "oddly" excited about being an aggressive opposition party for four years. In the meantime, she wants to build the Liberals strong again.
- This is when it starts, she says.
An analysis group has started working on the issues, but Avci is determined that major changes are required.
- When I appointed the analysis group, I told our board members that a gigantic renovation of the Liberals is now underway. It will last until spring 2030.
To DN's questions about what the renovation entails, Avci answers time and again that she does not want to get ahead of the analysis work. But she can still reveal a few things about the way forward. Part of the transformation is that L should reach out better in the areas of exclusion.
- It is part of our renewal work to the highest degree. I am absolutely convinced that our policy would attract a great many people in our outlying areas, but we cannot expect to gain trust if we are not there talking to residents.
Why haven't you been there then?
- You can ask my representative about that. After all, I've only been in this role for three months.
Jan Jönsson tells DN that he shares the ambition for the party to be present in marginalized areas, but does not recognize the image that they would not have been there. He says that he always took the time to visit the city's vulnerable areas, and that he himself grew up in, has worked in and still lives in Bredäng - one of the city's vulnerable areas. Instead, he sees the party's numbers in marginalized areas as a consequence of the party's choice of path at the national level.
Gulan Avci calls statements that it is immigrants or Muslims who decided the election to the disadvantage of the bourgeois, which representatives of SD and M have expressed, nonsense.
- Our democratic system assumes that each voter's vote carries equal weight. I think it's a very easy to explain analysis, but having said that, there is obviously a problem with clan voting in the Left Party.
But you can vote for whatever you want for whatever reason - why would it be an obvious problem in that case?
- Considering the testimonies and information that have come to light in the media, the problem is not what people vote for, but the suspicion that some may have been subjected to pressure or did not vote completely freely.
The Left Party's district chairman in Stockholm August Flensburg tells SVT that it is good that ambiguities are investigated, but points out that the police report is based on anonymous sources and is not directed at any individual.
One thing that Gulan Avci wants to focus on in the next four years is that L in Stockholm should "continue to dare to take on difficult issues". It is partly about a review of questions about breaking the exclusion and the culture of honor. She also addresses the increased anti-Semitism as a problem the Liberals want to focus on in Stockholm.
- We have the Palestine movement, which week after week is out in the streets and squares and spoils the democratic conversation and spreads anti-Semitism quite openly. It is terrible and I have not seen S lift a single finger to stop this development.
We have the right to demonstrate in Sweden, how do you see that?
- My criticism is not about the right to demonstrate, but about anti-Semitic expressions and hatred that occur in parts of the movement, says Avci.
Despite the fact that the alliance parties' opinion numbers were not enough for their own majority, Avci does not want to budge on which cooperation parties she sees as possible for the Liberals going forward.
- My alternative was the Green Party, but now I will enter an opposition role. For me, the center is the bourgeois parties.
