Ali Esbati


Ali Esbati is an Iranian-Swedish politician of the Left Party who was a member of the Riksdag from 2014 to 2024. An economist, he was the chairman of Young Left from 2001 to 2004. He was also the economic spokesperson for the Left Party from 2022 to 2024. He became famous for his blogging; his blog Esbatis kommentarer was at one time one of the most popular Swedish political blogs.
Esbati previously lived in Norway, where he held several jobs within the left-wing political sphere. After resigning from his position as the debate and opinion editor of the newspaper Klassekampen, he worked as managing director at the think tank Manifest. He is also a regular contributor to several Swedish and Norwegian magazines. Esbati has also been published in a number of books.

Early life and education

Esbati was born on 12 June 1977 in Teheran, Iran.He came to Sweden in 1986 with his mother and a younger brother. The family initially lived in a refugee shelter in Bromma, before eventually moving to Tensta. He joined Young Left in 1990. After primary school, he attended high school in Tensta and another one, specialized in mathematics, in Danderyd.
He received a degree in economics from the Stockholm School of Economics. In 1999–2000 he completed his military service at Televapenkompaniet in Uppland, where he was also trained in Russian. He is an atheist.
He was chairman of the Young Left from 2001–2004.

Utøya shooting

Esbati was invited to host a lecture at the summer camp of the Norwegian Workers' [Youth League (Norway)|Workers' Youth League] on Utøya outside Oslo on 22 July 2011. There he became a witness of the 2011 [Norway attacks#Utøya mass shooting|shooting] of 69 people by the lone gunman Anders Behring Breivik, most of them young members of the League. Esbati told afterwards that he saw how several people were killed, but managed to survive the tragedy by hiding in the surrounding woods and water.

Personal

Esbati previously lived with journalist and former Red Youth leader Marte Michelet. The couple has a daughter together.

Political career

Esbati has previously served in several internal offices within Young Left and the Left Party.
In 2010 [Swedish general election|2010] he ran as a candidate for the Riksdag on the list for Stockholm Municipality and was elected as the first deputy. In 2013 he served as a replacement for Josefin Brink.
In 2014 he again appeared on the Stockholm list, and was elected as a regular member. He has since been re-elected in both the 2018 and 2022 elections.
In February 2022 he was chosen as the new economic spokesperson for the Left Party, succeeding Ulla Andersson.