Sweden goes to the polls
Far-right party expected to make progress with anti-immigration stand
Swedes vote in election amid heated debate on immigration.
STOCKHOLM: Swedes go to the polls in legislative elections, with the far-right expected to post a record score as voters unhappy about immigration punish one of the few remaining left-wing governments in Europe.
Polling institutes have suggested support for the anti-immigration Sweden Democrats (SD) could tick in anywhere between 16% and 25%, giving it significant influence and making it impossible to predict the make-up of the next government.
The party with roots in the neo-Nazi 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 biggest parties, the Social Democrats and the conservative Moderates, were together predicted to win around 40% of votes, down by 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% of the 7.5 million eligible voters believed to still be undecided, according to pollsters.
Social Democratic Prime Minister Stefan Lofven has repeatedly called the elections a “referendum on the future of the welfare state”.
But the far-right has presented it as a vote on immigration and integration, after Sweden took in more than 160,000 asylum seekers in 2015 alone, a per capita record in Europe. Moderates leader Ulf Kristersson meanwhile 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”. —