Suddenly a pamphlet arrived in Sofie Böhlin's mailbox in Ullånger. The sender was the new Norrlandspartiet. They didn't know it, but the pamphlet landed just in time. Sofie Böhlin has always voted for the Center Party. They have been a counterweight to the long social democratic rule. But she had also begun to feel that the Center could no longer be the strong opposition.
- Then I read through the party's election manifesto and felt that it is exactly in line with what I think.
Now she has voted with her feet.
She is not alone in doing that.
The Norrlandspartiet makes a successful election. They get into all seven municipalities in Västernorrland and the region. They thus become Sweden's largest new party.
Kramfors becomes their strongest stronghold. In red Ådalen, where the Social Democrats have ruled for over 55 years, the party plummets from 41.7 percent to 21 percent. The largest party in the municipality will be the Norrlandspartiet with almost 25 percent of the votes.
The feeling of being in a place that contributes, but that the value is sent elsewhere is central to the Norrlandspartiet's success.
Sofie Böhlin's villa in Ullånger, in the middle of the High Coast, is beautifully located with rolling fields and forests around the house.
- Our area contributes so much to the municipality with tourism and the income from it, but we get very little in return. After all, it is the companies that ensure that it develops here. I don't want all investments to end up in central Kramfors.
On weekdays, Sofie Böhlin is a teacher at the F–6 school in the village. She tells us that they have become fewer. At the same time, she feels that there is poor transparency around the municipality's decisions, that the high-ranking politicians have each other's backs and that the municipality invested in the wrong things.
The Norrlandspartiet's first name is a former rector and local profile called Peyman Vahedi and has a background within the Social Democrats. He switched to the Norrlandspartiet at the beginning of 2026 after disputes within the workers' commune.
- We could sit in a meeting and talk about completely wrong things - three hours were spent talking about unimportant things. Instead of talking about the school, which people are worried about when every fourth young person in Kramfors leaves the ninth grade without a qualification for upper secondary school, he says.
Negotiations with the Moderates and the Center Party are now pending.
The party is young. It was formed with less than a year to go before election day. But the communication is clear. The party emphasizes the north-to-south perspective.
The election manifesto begins with the words: "A stronger Norrland starts here".
The program ranges from culture to care. The party raises work environment problems in welfare, wants to stop Google's data center, wants more hospitals, is against wind power, compares Norrland to a colony for southern Sweden and wants to see autonomy for Norrland similar to Scotland in Great Britain.
- It is a situation that is unsustainable. Arjeplog was forced to close its only secondary school. The Stockholm perspective does not work in Norrland, where the electricity grid is being expanded so that more electricity can be taken out to the south, but it will not ensure that people can live and live in Norrland's interior. If the development continues, communities will disappear even though they deliver enormous values, says Elina Arab, party chairman of the Norrland Party.
A message that has gone home in the Western Norrland cottages.
- They have managed to catch something. Even if the party themselves say that it is not connected with Sollefteå and the hospital, I think that it matters. But it was telling at their press conference that they consider themselves to have a broader mandate than that. There, they lifted everything from garbage collection and fishing sticks at school to increased Norrland autonomy, says Sofie Blombäck.
She is a lecturer in political science at Mittuniversitet and has researched how new parties establish themselves. Another success factor, Sofie Blombäck believes, is that the Norrlandspartiet has representatives who are partly known locally and partly have previous political experience.
- It is not the first party to push a national political line from a local or regional base. If you look back historically, this is how the Sweden Democrats entered the Riksdag. That's how the Green Party and the Christian Democrats got into the Riksdag, says Sofie Blombäck and continues:
- Already in the last election, we talked a lot about country versus city. It has been an explanation for SD's success, and it seems that at the regional level here, that policy is heard.
Now the Norrlandspartiet wants to expand outside Västernorrland and then they aim for the Riksdag in the 2034 election.
But until then, a teacher in Ullånger is waiting for change if the party is allowed to rule.
- I expect to get more insight into what the municipality is doing and that we will get more resources in the school, says Sofie Böhlin.
