Voter verdict: The 2022 election campaign is the worst yet

The smoke of gunpowder from the election campaign began to settle. Parties have fallen off the public stage and disappeared into boardrooms to form themselves for a new term. Some of them are losers in the opposition, others are winners in an upcoming government coalition.

It is also the time for investigation, when both sides analyze why things are going the way they did. A survey from DN/Ipsos shows that there are strong grounds for self-criticism. For citizens, the elections left a bad aftertaste. There is great dissatisfaction with the way campaigns are managed.

DN/Ipsos asked the same questions after the last five elections and the 2022 election gets the lowest rating of all voters.

– What we see in our surveys is a very unfortunate development. All parties should think about their responsibilities and what they can do to give voters better campaigns, says Niclas Calibring, opinion analyst at Ipsos.

In the current measurement Four out of ten describe the previous election campaign as bad or very bad. That percentage has more than doubled compared to 2006. During the same time, the percentage summarizing the election campaign as good or very good has been largely halved, from 31 to 16 percent.

The development can also be described as follows: 16 years ago, it was clear that more people gave the electoral movement a good rating than those who rejected it. Now there is a strong weight gain for those who hand out lower ratings. The trend has been clearly negative above all in the last three elections.

DN/Ipsos also asked voters to rate the degree of objectivity. The answers here point in the same direction. The 2022 election campaign was rated irrelevant or completely irrelevant by 40 percent of respondents. Only 14 percent considered the messages and arguments to be factual. In this regard too, things have clearly deteriorated since 2006.

This measurement gives There’s no word on what they’re unhappy with, but according to Niklas Calibring, previous polls show that voters don’t like littering and fighting. On the other hand, one appreciates when the parties talk more about what they themselves want and less about the opponents’ shortcomings.

Niklas Calibring says the mood that arose in public opinion during the first coronavirus spring of 2020 was clear.

Then, when a lot of things seemed to go wrong, we can see in our measurements that more people think development is going in the right direction. There was civil peace in politics, with a more sensible tone and not many attacks.

Discussion before the elections It revolves a lot around issues that men tend to give high priority to, such as energy and law enforcement. However, women are the least dissatisfied with the electoral movement as a whole.

There are some geographical differences as well. Residents of large cities are more resentful of residents of small cities and rural areas. The fact that rural issues were given relatively large space, for example the need for moderate fuel prices, may be an explanation.

Those who voted for the winning coalition parties (M, KD, SD, L) are somewhat more positive about the election campaign than the others, but the negatives also have an effect. SD voters stand out as the most positive.

Marie Grossel, lecturer In the field of political communication, he participated in the DN / Ipsos survey. She believes that the parties alone cannot be blamed for the impression that voters had during the election campaign. The media, especially social media platforms, plays a huge role. She notes that the negative development took off in 2014, after Facebook made a hack in Sweden.

Since then, the choice of media has continued to increase and has been largely filtered through social media. Marie Grossel says that even traditional media content is shared there.

Social media platform algorithms reward a specific type of content, which stands out, has an impact and is easy to absorb.

The traditional media also participates and contributes to raising the tone. It is about evaluating pure news. What stands out? Is it an expert discussion or a debate where party leaders scold each other?

In general, this frivolous impression can be reinforced. But “we humans are complicated,” as Marie Grossell points out. You can enjoy watching a clip from the movie Throwing Pancakes and at the same time you think it is inappropriate.

We do one thing and say another.

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