Scary messages in Arabic and the Left Party's election results in immigrant-dense areas

Before the election, a message in Arabic was spread on social media that roughly read: "Vote for V or go to the airport." The implication was that migrants risked being deported if they did not vote for the Left Party.

The party has denied any involvement and Sveriges Radio has stated that the material did not come from the Left Party's official accounts. Without proof, the party should not be accused of creating the message.

But P3 Nyheter has also been able to show that several left-wing politicians liked the post. Thus, it cannot be dismissed as something that was completely unrelated to the party's representatives.

At the same time, V scored exceptionally strong election results in several immigrant-dense areas. The party received 8.4 percent in the country as a whole but 17.2 percent in Malmö. In Rinkebysvängen the support exceeded 60 percent and in Rosengård centrum V got just over 41 percent.

Of course, this does not prove that the message decided the election. But the combination of extreme local election results, a message of intimidation aimed at a specific, relatively large language group and endorsements from V politicians warrants a journalistic review.

Who created the material? What accounts did it spread? How many voters were reached? Which V politicians liked or shared it? And what did the party do concretely to correct the misleading information?

The question does not concern the legitimacy of the votes. It applies if voters were influenced by a threatening message that large parts of the Swedish-speaking public never saw.

If election campaigns are conducted in parallel language worlds, where politicians can amplify misleading messages without public transparency, Sweden has a democratic problem. The Left Party should therefore welcome an open review.