A Sharp Turn in Swedish Politics
When we recently discussed Europe’s refugee crisis, we mentioned that a sizable political backlash was to be expected and that unfortunately, extreme nationalist parties were likely to be among the main beneficiaries. We also mentioned the situation of Sweden, where the mainstream political parties in an ongoing fit of political correctness bordering on lunacy have apparently decided to transform Sweden into a province of Mesopotamia.
Leader of the nationalist Sweden Democrats, Jimmie Akesson
Photo credit: Frankie Fouganthin / CC
We now have an opportunity to draw these two threads of the narrative together, so to speak. In Sweden’s 2006 general election, the “Sweden Democrats”, a political party founded in 1988 and considered “right wing fringe” up to that point (it self-describes as “social conservative with a nationalist foundation”), managed to make large gains in a number of Swedish municipalities. In the 2010 national election, it finally crossed the 4% threshold needed to obtain seats in parliament, polling 5.7% (this gave it 20 seats).
In the 2014 election, the party received 12.9% of the vote, winning 49 seats (14% of the total). In Scania County, its share of the vote (22.16%) put it in the lead before one of the two major established mainstream parties for the first time. In the Riksdag, Sweden’s parliament, the Sweden Democrats are “isolated”, as the other parties refuse to cooperate with them in any shape or form. We suspect that this underdog role has actually solidified support for the SD as the “only alternative”.
Continue reading “Refugee Crisis Blowback”
