Far-right tipped to win big as Swedes vote
STOCKHOLM: The polls opened for Swedish legislative elections yesterday with the far- right expected to notch up a record score as voters unhappy about immigration punish one of the few remaining left-wing governments in Europe.
Opinion polls suggest the antiimmigration Sweden Democrats (SD) could garner between 16 and 25 per cent of the vote, making it one of the biggest parties and almost impossible to predict the make-up of the next government.
The party with roots in the neoNazi movement has called the arrival of almost 400,000 asylum seekers since 2012 a threat to Swedish culture and claims they are straining Sweden’s generous welfare state.
The traditionally two largest parties, the Social Democrats and the conservative Moderates, are expected to win around 40 per cent of the votes combined, down 10 percentage points from the last elections in 2014.
Candidates from the eight parties campaigned down to the wire on Saturday, targeting in particular the 20 per cent of the 7.5 million eligible voters still undecided, according to pollsters.
“I’m still hesitating between the Moderates and SD. SD is quite close to the Moderates but they’re a little more clear in what they want. They’re more direct,” Elias, an 18-year- old voting in his first election, told AFP.
Social Democrat Prime Minister Stefan Lofven has repeatedly called the elections a “referendum on the future of the welfare state”.
But the far- right SD has presented it as a straight vote on immigration and integration, after Sweden took in more than 160,000 asylum seekers in 2015 alone, the most in Europe on a per capita basis.
On the eve of the election, Lofven condemned “the hateful forces” in Sweden.
He urged voters to “think about how they wanted to use their time on Earth”, calling on them to “stand on the right side of history”.
Moderates leader Ulf Kristersson said that after the election, Sweden would need “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 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”.
Polling stations opened across the country at 8.00am ( 0600 GMT) and close at 8.00pm, with first estimates expected soon afterwards.
Final results are due before midnight ( 2200 GMT) but the composition of the next government may not be known for weeks. —