C-Rebel Helena Lindahl Exits Swedish Parliament

Politics

7/1/2025

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Chloe ArvidssonChloe Arvidsson
3 min read

C-Rebel Helena Lindahl Exits Swedish Parliament

Helena Lindahl, the vote magnet known as the C-rebel for voting against Stefan Löfven, has decided to leave the Swedish Parliament. She will not run in the 2026 election.

– It feels both melancholic and exciting at the same time, she says.

In January 2019, Center Party member Helena Lindahl defied the party line by voting against Stefan Löfven as Prime Minister. “I cannot stop Löfven from being elected, but he is not and will never be my Prime Minister,” she explained her decision.

In later votes, she chose to follow the Center Party's line.

Now, Expressen can reveal that Lindahl has decided not to run for another term in Parliament.

– I have thought a lot about this, but now it feels like the right time for me to move on. In September, I will have been in Parliament for 15 years, she says.

According to Helena Lindahl, the decision to leave has nothing to do with her previous stances, nor is it a critique of the new Center Party leadership, she clarifies.

While it was tough internally immediately after Lindahl went against the party line, she makes no secret of it, but she insists that she has not been punished by her party since then.

– It was tough, but I felt I had to live up to what I had promised my voters, and then it felt right. I have never regretted my decision.

Demands from Outside

Recently, Helena Lindahl has served as a rural policy spokesperson, and it is this type of issue she wants to focus on when she leaves Parliament.

– The outside world is sometimes too lenient with politicians. The green industries of the countryside are not a special interest but a general interest for transition and economy. Perhaps I can be even more useful as a tough demand-maker outside politics, she says.

According to several sources to Expressen, Lindahl is talked about for a role within the Lantbrukarnas riksorganisation, LRF. The organization is politically independent but historically close to the Center Party. The new C-leader Anna-Karin Hatt, for example, left the position as CEO of LRF when she recently returned to politics.

Helena Lindahl herself says it sounds like “a dream job,” but denies having received any offer.

– Compared to ice hockey, LRF is like playing in the NHL for those interested in rural issues, she says, laughing.

Vote Magnet

Helena Lindahl is a Member of Parliament from Västerbotten and has long been one of her party's most voted representatives. In the 2022 election, only the then C-leader Annie Lööf received more votes.

Lindahl has recently informed the nomination committee of her decision not to run in 2026. The lists of candidates for the elections are usually set by the parties now in the fall and the coming spring.

Recently, Annika Strandhäll (S), also a well-known party profile, announced that she is leaving Parliament at the election.