Lorena Delgado Varas has been a member of the Riksdag since 2018 and also holds a position in the party board. On Friday, she was presented with an ultimatum: resign from the political assignments or be excluded from the work.
But Delgado Varas refuses to comply with the demand.
She writes on Facebook that she has followed all agreements with the party board and taken a break - "but now it is no longer possible to be silent".
"Now, the message has also arrived that the party board has decided to exclude me from the Riksdag group and deprive me of all my assignments. Of course, I did not agree to this and will not agree to this", she writes and continues:
"I will continue to be a member of the Riksdag and am grateful for all members and voters who show their support."
Split within V
According to Aftonbladet, 17 local party associations and nearly 900 members have signed a petition in support of Delgado Varas. Daniel Riazat, who sits in the Riksdag for V, calls the party board's decision "one of the biggest scandals in our party's modern history".
Even former heavyweights such as former party leader Lars Ohly and member of the Riksdag Rossana Dinamarca have given Delgado Varas their support.
No exclusion from the party
The Left Party's party secretary Maria Forsberg said earlier on Saturday that she had hoped that Friday's conversation would lead to consensus, but that it has not.
Later in the afternoon, Maria Forsberg says in a written comment to TT that she hopes Delgado Varas will still go along with the party and leave. An exclusion from the party - which would have made her a political outcast - does not seem to be an option at present.
"I hope that when she has had time to digest the party board's decision, it will land better and that she respects what the party has come to. What the party board has decided today is that she cannot represent us in the Riksdag work, but be a member", says Forsberg to TT.
Lack of judgment
The V-board's decision was not made solely due to the latest incident, but a history of lack of judgment, according to Forsberg. On a direct question about whether V believes that Delgado Varas has anti-Semitic views, the response is clear.
No. What she has done is to share an incorrect post. The image that was shared was a mistake, but the image was deeply problematic.
TT has sought Lorena Delgado Varas.
On April 8, the Jewish Central Council reported V-leftist Lorena Delgado Varas, a member of the Riksdag and a member of the party board, for incitement against a group of people since she shared a post on social media that, among other things, claimed that "Zionist Jews" control countries through control over politics and banks.
Delgado Varas took a break from her political assignments during the investigation.
On April 22, the prosecutor in the case announced that the investigation would be dropped. He accepted Delgado Varas' explanation that she had missed the anti-Semitic message in the image text when she shared the image, which contained criticism of the USA.
According to the newspaper Världen idag, Delgado Varas has also "liked" both anti-Semitic comments and hate comments directed against foreign minister Maria Malmer Stenergard (M).
After a meeting with V's party board, Delgado Varas was urged to resign from her political assignments on May 2. Something she refuses, she announced the day after.
