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POLL

Record support for Greens: poll

Support for the Green Party has increased by three percentage points to 10.6 percent according a new poll, which shows a majority of voters support Sweden's Left-Green alliance.

Record support for Greens: poll

The Demoskop poll found the opposition parties would win a majority in parliament were the election held today, with 50.2 percent of support from the electorate, compared to 44.6 percent for the governing centre-right coalition.

“We feel the wind at our backs,” the Green Party’s co-leader, Maria Wetterstrand, told Expressen newspaper, celebrating the party’s highest opinion poll rating to date.

Despite record levels of support for the Greens, the other opposition parties in the opposition left-green alliance are faring less well after a week of heated debates in Sweden over tax deductions for the service sector, which the opposition plans to abolish if they win the general election in September.

Support for the Social Democrats has fallen by almost one percent to 34.4 percent while the Left Party, which has taken the strongest line in the tax breaks debate, lost 1.1 percent of support and now stands at 5.1 percent.

However even larger losses were suffered by the governing parties, with the Moderate Party losing the most, with a 2.6 percent fall in support to 27.3 percent. The other coalition parties also experienced slight drops in support with the exception of the Christian Democrats which increased its support by a half a percentage point.

The anti-immigrant Sweden Democrats Party also increased its support by a half a percentage point and, at 4.3 percent, remains above the threshold to win a seat in parliament.

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POLITICS

Joint leader of Sweden’s Green Party announces resignation

Märta Stenevi, the embattled leader of Sweden's Green Party, has said she is resigning to focus on her mental health, her children and her partner.

Joint leader of Sweden's Green Party announces resignation

The decision comes less than three weeks after Stenevi took an indefinite period of sick leave, saying that she needed time to recover after a bruising period that saw the party launch an internal investigation into complaints about her management style.

There has also been extensive press coverage over the alleged conflict she has with Daniel Hellden, the man chosen as the party’s other leader at a conference in November. 

“This is a very difficult decision,” Stenevi told the Aftonbladet newspaper. “I put myself forward for reelection and received a renewed mandate from the congress, but I don’t believe I can be my best self right now and I don’t really know how long it will take to get back on my feet.”

“The party deserves better than to be in some kind of limbo, where one of the spokespeople [as the party calls its leaders] cannot fully carry out the role. And I need to focus on getting better again, being a good mum and a pleasant partner.”  

Writing on Instagram, Stenevi’s joint leader Daniel Helldén said that he was sorry to see Stenevi go. 

“I have respect for her decision, but personally I think it’s a real shame. I have very much enjoyed working together with Märtha,” he said. 

Stenevi said that the leaks to the media about complaints about her management style in the autumn had been difficult for her to handle. 

“It put me under enormous pressure. It wasn’t the media attention: I understand that you are going to be continually criticised and investigated, but what happened in the autumn was that there was a lot of anonymous briefing, so you didn’t know who you could trust or where it was coming from, and that made it much more difficult and much more draining.” 

When Stenevi went on sick leave last month, the party’s secretary, Katrin Wissing, told TT that her relationship with Daniel Helldén had not played a role in her departure.

“On the contrary, Daniel has been giving Märta extremely good support,” she said. 

Although Stenevi is resigning as party leader, she intends to remain in parliament is an MP, and has not decided to give up her career in politics. 

“When I’m back on track, I’ll see what happens, but I don’t feel completely finished with politics,” she said. “But this is the right decision, both for me, my family and my party.” 

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