Far-right tipped to win big as Swedes vote
STOCKHOLM: Swedes voted in legislative elections yesterday with a far-right surge expected if voters punish traditional parties over their failure to address immigration concerns.
Social Democratic Prime Minister Stefan Lofven has called the election a “referendum on the future of the welfare state” but the far-right Sweden Democrats (SD) have presented it as vote on immigrants and their integration, after Sweden took in almost 400,000 asylum seekers since 2012.
Opinion polls suggest SD could garner between 16 and 25 per cent of the vote, making it one of the biggest parties and rendering it almost impossible to predict the make-up of the next government.
The party, with roots in the neo-Nazi movement, has said the arrival of asylum seekers is a threat to Swedish culture and claimed they put a strain on the country’s generous welfare state.
As he cast his ballot in Stockholm yesterday, Lofven urged Swedes not to vote for the “racist party”.
“It’s... about decency, about a decent democracy. And the Social Democrats and a Social Democratic-led government is a guarantee for not letting the Sweden Democrats extremist party, racist party, get any influence in the government.”
The Social Democrats, traditionally the biggest party and who have led a minority government with the Greens, have lost support on both the left and the right and are tipped to post their lowest score since 1911.
Anna Berglund, a 28-year-old lawyer who voted for the small Centre Party at a polling station the upscale Ostermalm neighbourhood here, said SD’s mounting support was “bad news”.
“I’m afraid we’re becoming a society that is more hostile to foreigners. I don’t like it.”
In Rinkeby, a disadvantaged suburb north of here, home to a strong immigrant population, locals were also concerned.
“I don’t want SD. So I go see people and ask them if they have Swedish citizenship and if they do I tell them that it’s important to go vote,” Sofie, a Turkish woman in her 50s said.
In Strangnas, an hour west of Stockholm, Lofven’s main challenger, Moderates leader Ulf Kristersson, handed out campaign leaflets in his hometown on voting day.
He said he was worried about SD.
“I have tried to prove to voters during the election campaign that if you really want a change, you have to vote... for our four parties,” he said.
Well aware that his Alliance has no chance of winning a majority, he has said Sweden needs “a strong cross-bloc cooperation to isolate the forces... pushing for Sweden to withdraw from international cooperation”.
In southern Sweden, an SD stronghold, party leader Jimmie Akesson campaigned among throngs of supporters late on Saturday as detractors booed him and shouted “No racists on our streets!”
“We’re now competing against the Social Democrats and Moderates to become the biggest party in the country,” he said, dismissing the protesters as “communists”.
Neither Lofven’s “red-green” bloc nor Kristersson’s opposition centre-right four-party Alliance (Moderates, Centre, Liberals and Christian Democrats) were expected to win a majority in parliament.
The opposition is intent on ousting Lofven, with some Moderates willing to go so far as to put an end to SD’s pariah status and open negotiations with them.