Swedish election a 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 northern European 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 parliamentary 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-World War II 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 country.
“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 steady rise in popularity of the Sweden Democrats.
The party has worked to soften its neo-Nazi image while helping to break down long-standing taboos on what Swedes could say openly about immigration and integration without being shunned as racists.
During a heated debate among party leaders Friday, Akesson caused a stir by blaming migrants for the difficulties they often have in finding employment and not adjusting to Sweden.
The broadcaster that aired the televised debate, SVT, afterward called his remarks degrading and against the democratic mandate of public broadcasting.
Akesson responded that state television shouldn’t take sides, and later announced that he wouldn’t take part in any of
SVT’s election programs Sunday.
At the party’s rally on Saturday, he strongly criticized Lofven’s government for “prioritizing” the cause of immigrants over the needs of citizens.
“This government we have had now, they have prioritized, during these four years, asylumseekers,” Akesson said, giving an exhaustive list of things he says the government has failed to do for Swedish society because of migrants.
“Sweden needs breathing space, we need tight responsible immigration policies.”
Akesson’s strong rhetoric has shocked many Swedes since the country has a long tradition of helping those in need.
“Terrible! I just wanna cry when I think about it,” said Veronica Lundqvist, referring to the Sweden Democrats after she left a voting booth in central Stockholm.
“They say awful things. I mean of course we have a lot of refugees here, but we need to take care of them. They come from a terrible place, terrible wars. We can’t just throw them out.”
But others say the Sweden Democrats are trying to fix a historical problem.
“It’s an integration issue,” Karl Ljung said at the same voting station. “It’s not just about what happened two years ago when we had a lot of refugees. “It’s more that we have had an integration issue for maybe 20 years. So we really have to solve it now.”
Security was another key election issue. Citizens expressed concerns about reports of an increase in crimes such as rape and gang violence.