Swedish election seen as test of cultural identity
Anti-immigration Sweden Democrats set to become third-largest party in parliament
STOCKHOLM — Voters in Sweden made their views on immigration known Sunday in a general election that could strengthen a party with roots in the white supremacist movement if enough ballots were cast to protest an influx of newcomers to the historically heterogeneous nation.
The leader of a far-right party that campaigned with an antimigrant message says the party has “won” Sweden’s national election.
Returns reported by the Scandinavian country’s election commission showed the Sweden Democrats placing third in the election held Sunday, trailing the governing Social Democrats and the Moderates.
Addressing supporters after more than four-fifths of ballots were counted, party leader Jimmie Akesson said the victory was in the number of seats the party gained in the national assembly, the Riksdagen.
Akesson told the crowd chanting his first name, “No one can take that from us.”
The ruling Social Democrats received approximately 28 per cent of the vote, a historical low for the traditional left-wing party, which has dominated Swedish politics in the post-Second World War era.
With no party securing a majority of the 175 seats in the Riksdagen, Sweden’s parliament, it could take weeks or months of coalition talks before the next government is formed.
Both the left-leaning bloc led by the Social Democrats and the centre-right bloc have said they would refuse to consider the Sweden Democrats as a potential coalition partner.
The rise of the far-right Sweden Democrats had many other Swedes worried about an erosion of the humanitarian values that have long been a foundation of the Scandinavian country’s identity.
The election was Sweden’s first since the government in 2015 allowed 163,000 migrants into the country with a population of 10 million. The number is far lower than the asylum-seekers Germany accepted that year, but highest per capita of any European nation.
“This election is a referendum about our welfare,” Prime Minister Stefan Lofven said. “It’s also about decency, about a decent democracy ... and not letting the Sweden Democrats, an extremist party, a racist party, get any influence in the government.”
About 7.5 million voters were eligible to choose the next members
of the 349-seat Riksdag, or parliament. About 6,300 candidates sought the four-year terms.
Immigration was the hot topic of the campaign, helping the Sweden Democrats’ popularity.