Nationalists poised to win big in upcoming Swedish election
Bloomberg
Viking rock music and whole pigs roasting on spits drew thousands of Swedes to a festival hosted by nationalists poised to deliver their country’s biggest political upheaval in a century.
The Sweden Democrats have been led since 2005 by a clean-cut and bespectacled man, Jimmie Akesson. He has gentrified a party that traces its roots back to the country’s neo-Nazi, white supremacist fringe. Some polls now show the group may become the biggest in Sweden’s parliament after general elections on Sept. 9. Such an outcome would end 100 years of Social Democratic dominance.
In Mr. Akesson’s hometown of Solvesborg, large crowds cheered as he laid out the party’s vision for drastic cuts in immigration. His agenda is part of a global wave of nationalist and antiestablishmentsentiment that has followed the 2008 financial crisis, with the election of Donald Trump in the U.S. and Britain’s vote to leave the European Union standing out as the starkest examples ofthe new world order.
For Sweden, a tipping point was the refugee crisis of 2015. Over the past decades, the once homogeneous nation of 10 million people has been transformed, with 18 percent of the population now born outside the country.
Most Swedes profess to have a positive view toward immigration. But voters have become more comfortable voicing misgivings after their country accepted as many as 600,000 refugees over the past five years.
At his party’s festival, Mr. Akessonrevved up the crowd by slamming the establishment’s failures, calling the last two governments the worst in Swedish history. Tshirts calling for a Swexit, or an exit from the EU, were exchanged as bands played nationalist tunes.
Ted Lorentsson, a retiree from the island of Tjorn, said he’s an enthusiastic backer of the Sweden Democrats. “I think they want to improve elderly care, health care, child care,”he said. “Bring back the old Sweden.” But he also acknowledges his view has led to disagreement within his family as his daughter recoils at what she feels is the “Hitler”-likerhetoric.
Other supporters say they’re frustrated that Sweden’seconomic boom over recent years has failed to translate into gains in welfare and other services. “Trains and hospitals don’t work, but immigration continues,” said Roger Mathson, a retired vegetableoil factory worker.
“I’m not a racist, but I’m a nationalist,” he said. “I don’t like seeing the town square full of Niqab-clad ladies and people fighting with each other.”
The Social Democrat-led government of Prime Minister Stefan Lofven has overseen economic growth rates exceeding 3 percent, in part fueled by immigration. But at the same time, Swedes have had to wait longer to get access to welfare staples like hospital care. Meanwhile, crime rates have risen with more gang-related shootings, reported rapes and vandalism. On Monday night, scores of cars were set on fire in Gothenburg, in what the police say may have been a coordinatedattack.
Pia Persson, a 60-year-old who lives in Kristianstad and works at Absolut Vodka, said that she is voting for the Sweden Democrats after feeling neglected by the current government. That includes waiting too long at her doctor’s office, where Ms. Persson says she’s sometimes the “only Swede.”
“I think you need to start seeing the whole picture in Sweden and save the original Swedish population,” she said. “I’m not racist, because I’m a realist.”
Kristianstad, about a 30minute drive from Mr. Akesson’s hometown, has the same foreign-born population as the national average. Incomes there are about 8 percent below the national average, while only a third have an education beyond high school. The Sweden Democrats got 21.5 percent of the vote in Kristianstad in 2014, compared with 12.9 percent nationwide.
According to an analysis ofsupporters of Sweden Democratsby pollster Novus, only 5 percent think Sweden is heading in the right direction. The voters are almost two-thirds male, have belowaverage educations, tend to live in rural areas, and make less money than backers of the two biggest parties, the Social Democrats and Moderates. Their top issues are immigration, law and order, andhealth care.
Sweden’s longest economic expansion in at least four decadeshas done little to win the government more support, polls show. Immigrants have played a large part in the boom, stepping in to fill a growing labor shortage. Foreign-born workers accounted forthe entire job growth in the industrial sector last year and filled 90 percent of the new positionsin welfare.
Sweden also typically does well in global surveys on life satisfaction and economic competitiveness. And it enjoysa healthy budget surplus.
But even young voters are turning their backs on the establishment. One potential supporter of the Sweden Democrats is law student Oscar Persson. Though he hasn’t yet decided how he’ll vote, he says it’s time for the mainstream parties to stop treating the Sweden Democrats like a pariah.