One of the major features of this site is updates playing to the present - there's a reason why the Wikibox thread drowns in Trump and Gabbard, while Aaron Schock, Patrick Murphy and Brian Schweitzer seem like dated choices. I decided to embrace this phenomenon this time, using a name that would have remained hipster had the world been a better place, because it all fit so perfectly - and honestly, what party in sound mind would choose Marie Granlund as their prime candidate anyways?
The story of the New Left had always been one of the crimson Scylla and the pale red Charybdis.
Actually, most of all, it had been the story of one Ylva Johansson. So, to begin there:
In 1988 - perhaps the last showdown of the old time, just before the proper beginning of the modern age - Ylva Johansson was a breath of fresh air in the Left-Communist party as the star candidate of the party's Youth League: a young and radical teacher-to-be in a hip cap adorned with a red star, couchsurfing in anticipation of being able to afford an apartment of her own. Despite the party hanging onto its Riksdag seats by the skin of its teeth, Johansson was elected as the final of three Left-Communists from Stockholm, bumped up on the list after the person originally number three on the list, former party secretary Bo Hammar - who would later marry Johansson - stepped aside for health reasons. As the Riksdag's youngest MP, she appeared on TV more often than most minor party backbenchers and was seen as a true rising star. Her career as a Left-Communist MP would not be long, however, as the party began to fracture along with the Soviet Union and she with many others felt increasingly uncomfortable in the party. When the party's internal primaries didn't go the reformists' way, Johansson announced her retirement. Shortly after the 1991 election that began the demise of the Left-Communists, Johansson announced her departure from the party itself - in fact, only a failed (and to an extent quite inauthentic) turn towards a campaign based on social issues instead of communist ideals had kept her from leaving already.
At the same time as the Left-Communists went down in flames, the feminist movement was gaining steam, mobilized by the male dominance on the left (the visibility of Stig Malm probably contributing). When the Social Democratic congress voted for austerity measures and against gender quotas on party lists at the 1992 party congress, some members had had enough. Perhaps the timing was crucial. When all nuances of the left crumbled at the same time, there was room for a new force. In fact, no less than two emerged. One was the Socialist People's Party, a vehicle of Left-Communist deputy leader Schyman that tried to gather the ashes of the not completely insane part of the Left-Communists. The other one was the Women's List, an entity fleeting between a feminist pressure group and a new political party running on social justice issues, especially feminism. The latter was where a few disillusioned Social Democrats - including the majority of the City of Stockholm and Skåne SSU districts - ended up after the mass walkout of the 1992 congress, quickly turning the formerly non-partisan group into a decidedly left-of-centre one. They were generally skeptical to Ylva Johansson and Bo Hammar teaming up with them, but they did allow them to convice the List that they had not only left the Left-Communists but also communism itself.
In the end, it was all about simple math. All parties could count to 4%, and a broader tent would only help on the way there. The idea of accepting the Socialist People's Party into the fold was far more controversial, especially as Schyman and Johansson had gotten in several fights over the latter criticizing the Left-Communists. In the end, what sealed the deal was the not insignificant number of local officeholders elected for the Left-Communists that had joined the SPP, and that would grant the nascent party proper platforms in the local news. Thus, the New Left was born, claiming democratic socialism and social justice as its ideological pillars. Ylva Johansson, squarely in the middle of the party, was elected party leader.
While the 1994-1995 period seemed to be a period of strength for the young party, it was having a hard time internally. The EU had come into the limelight with the referendum, and the New Left realized that they were more divided on the issue than they thought that they were. In fact, Ylva Johansson was in opposition to a clear majority of her own party. To avoid being forced out and provoking a collapse of the party, Gudrun Schyman was appointed head of the party list and led the party's campaign to a stunning success while Johansson stayed out of anything European. While it did "earn" the party some questioning headlines, Schyman's charisma and ability to pretend that the party was the most credible anti-EU force brought another victory, but the party still had to avoid being seen as anti-western by those who mistrusted the former communists in the party. In the end, the tightrope was too tight and Johansson had to take a break from politics. But the very same tightrope prevented the party's brightest star Schyman from returning home and forced the decent but milquetoast Margareta Olofsson upon the party. Yet perhaps that was still a better alternative than letting the radicals take control, as the 1996 budget debacle proved.
This dilemma was, as has been alluded to, the biggest hurdle to the New Left - the line between radical and brave, and between competent and bland, was not easy to balance on. And there was no ready-made recipe for success - the very same combination that brought them success in the early nineties hurt the party more and more as the years passed.
Alas, it appeared that the rope had finally snapped, as the hardliners in the youth league (not a problem) and the headlines (a problem) disappeared for the Radical Alternative, that ironically used the same script as the New Left itself did fifteen years earlier: push the political scale to the left while appearing to be normal people. As the New Left gathered in the newly constructed Uppsala House of Music, the feeling in the air was intense: how would they profit on the new red-green government without looking too angry? What was a good balance of economics and social issues, considering the zeitgeist? And how could they mobilize students and radicals without looking like "Karl-Petter Light"?
Surprisingly, most of the answers were to stay on track: fair trade over free trade, quotas on company boards, chaining social security levels to the consumer price index - all standard New Left policies - were affirmed. The most heated issue was instead the classical clash of personalities, though with a twist: it was mostly about numbers. The clear favorite to take over from Johansson was Jonas Sjöstedt, just elected to the Riksdag after a successful career in the European Parliament, a wonk and a skilled orator as well as a proper Working Class Man formerly employed at Volvo. While popular in the party, many were worried that a man's man would dominate the party. Especially those more inclined to put social issues first therefore put forward a motion to introduce a system with two party leaders, like the Greens before they decided to put all their cards in Åsa Domeij's basket (and then complete their descendance into madness with the introduction of a system with no less than twelve spokespersons). Though the Green experiment was the main argument against the proposal, it had the support of Sjöstedt himself - who didn't want the burden of being the sole party leader - and passed easily.
When the election came, Sjöstedt was unsurprisingly the big winner, crushing the Skåne district's token (but unexpectedly strong, likely thanks to protest votes against the double leader system) candidate. On the female side, the choice was less clear-cut, though the frontrunner was without a doubt the former Youth League chair Zaida Catalàn, an outspoken feminist and environmentalist, contrasting against her more traditional rivals, both former Social Democrats. In the end, the biggest surprise was the closeness of the race, likely due to the runner-up Nordström promising a sweet deal to Granlund's (mostly southern) backers. With a new duo in charge, it was time to start opposing the Social Democrats from the left, for the first time in years.
(For foreign readers: Ms. Catalàn was OTL a former Green politician who was recently murdered in the DR of Congo while working for the United Nations. I hope that it is not improper to put a recently deceased individual in such a visible position in the timeline.)