Letters to Palestinian prisoners sent by members of Sweden’s Left Party (Vänsterpartiet) have become an election controversy after it emerged that at least two recipients had been convicted of terrorism or other serious violent crimes in Israel. The case has prompted criticism from other parties just over a month before Sweden’s general election on 13 September, while Left Party leader Nooshi Dadgostar has said the letters were not intended as expressions of support for the crimes committed.
Left Party MPs sent letters to Palestinian prisoners
The controversy began after Expressen reported that Left Party MP Ilona Szatmári Waldau had written to a Palestinian prisoner as part of a campaign supporting Palestinians held in Israeli prisons.
According to SVT’s reconstruction of the case, the prisoner had been convicted of ordering bomb attacks in Israel that caused several deaths.
The newspaper subsequently reported that Samuel Gonzalez Westling, the Left Party’s parliamentary group leader, had also written to a Palestinian prisoner who had previously been convicted of murdering an Israeli.
The letters were part of a broader campaign concerning Palestinian prisoners. The Left Party has acknowledged that the two recipients should not have been included.
Dadgostar told SVT that the initiative should not be described as a campaign of support for convicted offenders. She said it was intended to draw attention to Israeli detention practices that the party considers to violate human rights.
At the same time, she described the inclusion of the two convicted prisoners as serious, saying that they “should not have been part of the campaign at all”.
Dispute over how extensive the letter campaign was
The controversy has also developed into a dispute over the scale of the campaign.
Expressen published information suggesting that a larger number of prisoners had received letters from Left Party representatives. Dadgostar challenged parts of that reporting, telling SVT that only a small number of party representatives had actually sent letters.
The newspaper has defended its reporting, saying that information about the campaign came from the Palestinian Association in Sweden (Palestinska riksförbundet), which had cooperated with the party on the prisoner initiative.
The precise scale of the campaign has therefore become a separate issue from the two cases that the Left Party itself has acknowledged were problematic.
The Palestinian prisoner letters enter Sweden’s election campaign
The letters to Palestinian prisoners have quickly moved beyond an internal party controversy because of their timing.
Sweden will elect a new Riksdag, as well as regional and municipal councils, on 13 September 2026. The election is also expected to determine whether the current centre-right government can remain in office or whether a new majority can be assembled around the opposition.
The Left Party wants to be part of a future red-green government and Dadgostar has repeatedly argued that the party should receive ministerial posts if the opposition wins.
That ambition is already politically difficult. The Centre Party (Centerpartiet) has opposed including the Left Party in a future government, while the Social Democrats (Socialdemokraterna) have avoided committing themselves to such an arrangement.
According to SVT, both the Social Democrats and the Centre Party have criticised the prisoner letters. Left Party Secretary Maria Forsberg acknowledged that the affair was “deeply serious” but rejected the suggestion that it showed the party was incapable of governing.
She also said that antisemitism and the romanticisation of political violence were unacceptable within the party.
A recurring problem for Vänsterpartiet
The episode is particularly sensitive because it follows previous controversies involving Left Party representatives and statements about Israel, Palestine, Hamas and antisemitism.
Earlier cases have already forced the party leadership to defend its internal screening procedures and have become part of a wider debate about whether Vänsterpartiet could be included in a future government.
In an analysis published by SVT, political commentator Mats Knutson argued that repeated controversies involving party representatives are damaging both the Left Party’s election campaign and its image as a potential governing party.
For Dadgostar, the difficulty is therefore broader than the letters themselves. The Left Party has made support for Palestinian rights one of its most visible foreign-policy positions, while at the same time attempting to convince other opposition parties that it can participate in government.
With the election approaching, the latest controversy gives those parties another reason to question that prospect. The political consequences may depend less on the letters’ direct effect on voters than on whether they make negotiations over a future Swedish government even more difficult.
