The Swedish Council for Crime Prevention (Brå) has asked members of the Swedish Parliament and local politicians in municipalities and regions about their exposure to harassment, threats, vandalism or violence during 2024. The new survey shows that 25.4 percent of elected officials have been affected.
This is a decrease compared to the 2022 election year when the vulnerability was 29.5 percent, but hatred and threats are more common during election years, notes Brå.
The most common form is threats and attacks via social media. In most cases, the perpetrator is perceived to be a middle-aged man and in about half of the cases, the perpetrator is said to belong to some kind of environment or group, most often a right-wing extremist or racist environment.
Considered dropping out
A quarter of the elected officials who were targeted have also considered leaving all their political positions, which is a small increase compared to before. And 3 percent have actually dropped out. The issue has been highly topical since Center Leader Anna-Karin Hatt announced in October that she was resigning as a result of hatred and threats.
Several have also self-censored themselves or changed their position on an issue out of concern about being exposed to crime, which risks leading to fewer people daring to get involved politically, according to Brå.
It is a problem for democracy and democratic discourse, says investigator Sara Afifi.
The issues that generate the most threats and hatred are immigration and the closure of public services, themes that have been recurring over the years. Women are more affected than men. And younger politicians are more vulnerable than older ones.
One party stands out
One party stands out in the statistics for the third survey in a row, namely the Green Party, where 33 percent of elected representatives state that they have been victimized.
MP MP Ulrika Westerlund is pushing issues about LGBTQI rights, which she notices is causing reactions. She receives emails and comments on social media with hateful content and has even censored herself.
I think that the vast majority of people in Sweden absolutely do not want to live in a country where politicians, like Anna-Karin Hatt, choose to leave because they think the price is far too high, she says.
The situation is also worse for members of parliament, with 65 percent of them reporting that they were victimized in 2024, compared to 31 percent of elected officials in regions and 25 percent in municipalities.
In short, Brå states that the more exposed an elected official is, that is, if the person is well-known, active on social media or written about in other media, the more vulnerable they are.
At the same time, relatively few incidents are reported to the police, only 16.5 percent, according to the survey.
It is a societal failure, says Ulrika Westerlund.
The politicians' security survey is being conducted for the seventh time by Brå on behalf of the government.
Of just over 13,300 ordinary members of the Swedish Parliament and councils surveyed, approximately 7,500 have answered questions about their exposure to threats, harassment, violence, vandalism and theft during 2024.
Just over 25 percent of elected officials were subjected to some form of threat, harassment, violence, vandalism or theft in 2024. This is a smaller proportion compared to the 2022 election year when just over 29 percent stated that they were subjected to it. In recent years, the level of victimization has been higher during election years.
There is approximately the same proportion of elected representatives with a foreign background who state that they were victimized in 2024 as the proportion with a Swedish background (26.9 and 25.3 percent, respectively).
In the 30-39 age group, 35.9 percent stated that they had been victimized, compared to 13.6 percent who are 70 years of age and older.
The proportion of vulnerable people in 2024 was highest within the Green Party (33.1 percent), followed by SD (28.9 percent), M (28.5 percent), L (24.8 percent), S (24.4 percent), KD (22.8 percent), V (22.2 percent) and lowest within the Centre Party (19.9 percent).
Source: Swedish Crime Prevention Council (Brå)
