Status: 09/11/2022 03:08 a.m
Today Sweden elects a new parliament. The right-wing populist Sweden Democrats are the second strongest force in polls – it could be a close race between a left-wing and a right-wing alliance.
The right-wing populist Sweden Democrats have never been as strong as they are now: polls predict that they will get one in five votes, making them the second strongest force behind the Social Democrats. What is also new is that bourgeois parties such as the conservative moderates no longer categorically reject cooperation with the right-wing populists.
Lead candidate Ulf Kristersson, who, according to polls, ranks third with his party, has to put up with a lot of questions. Because the Sweden Democrats as a party partly have their origins in the Nazi milieu: “The Sweden Democrats have a horrific past, so they are not alone in Swedish politics,” he says. “They have uncomfortable roots, just like the Left Party. They too still have members who call themselves communists.”
But it’s about the Sweden Democrats, the moderator from “Swedish Radio” interrupts. Yes, but that is a question of principle, according to Kristersson of the conservative moderates. They want to work together on factual issues – and will have to if the surveys are correct.
Will the conservative moderates soon work with the Sweden Democrats? During the election campaign, they were open about it.
Image: AFP
Shift to the right by the Social Democrats
Because so far it looks as if both camps, left and middle-right, get about the same number of votes. The Social Democrats currently rule alone in a minority government.
Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson has been in office for almost a year and has replaced her predecessor Stefan Löfven after seven years at the helm. And she had equally big issues and decisions on the table: pandemic, NATO accession, inflation.
The Social Democrats are responding by jerking to the right, says Torbjörn Sjöström from the polling institute Novus:
There is a lot of unrest in the country, so the Sweden Democrats are winning. The Social Democrats have tightened their tone and promises, promising quick fixes. You move partly on the terrain of the Sweden Democrats.
Main topic: fight against crime
Sweden faces major problems: the healthcare system needs reform, private schools make profits from public funds, and deadly gang crime continues to spread. At least one person is shot dead every week – and it’s no longer just in the notorious suburbs of big cities.
Failed integration, areas without prospects, parallel societies. The parties are outdoing each other with supposedly quick solutions to an ever-growing problem: “Our election manifesto includes extremely comprehensive investments in a historic expansion of the police force, historic toughening of penalties for gang criminals and comprehensive measures to prevent new recruitment and segregation,” says Prime Minister Andersson.
“Get out of the country” rhetoric
“These gangs should either go to jail or get out of the country if they’re not Swedish citizens,” rumbles Ulf Kristersson of the Sweden Democrats. “The state must take control again.” According to party leader Jimmie Akesson, anyone who comes to Sweden only to commit crimes should look for another country.
Otherwise, the election revolves around the Swedes’ wallets: observers believe inflation, electricity costs and petrol prices are also major problems here and will determine the choice for many.
Swedes can cast their votes until 8 p.m. on Sunday – and then it could be weeks before a new government is in office.
Sweden elects a new parliament
Sofie Donges, ARD Stockholm, September 11, 2022 3:08 a.m