Posted pasts

Abstract In this article, we investigate how Danish and Swedish political parties strategically mobilised references to the past in their Facebook campaigning during the 2022 national elections. Through a qualitative content analysis of 759 Facebook posts, we identify how the past was instrumentalised in political rhetoric, specifically exploring positive, negative, and ambivalent campaigning strategies. Rather than reinforcing a pure binary between positive and negative messages, the findings illustrate that such references were also deployed ambivalently – simultaneously legitimising political positions and discrediting opponents. Yet, the study also highlights significant cross-national differences: While Swedish parties more often invoke long-term ideological legacies, Danish parties tend to focus on recent events. By combining insights from research on political campaigning and memory studies, our analysis underscores the complex narrative functions of history and memory in contemporary multiparty contexts. The study demonstrates how invoking the past shapes electoral discourse and thereby has the potential to influence both voter perceptions and self-proclaimed party legitimacy.