Sweden: Right-wing populist campaign plunges government into crisis

Scandal in Stockholm
Trolls in their own ranks: A right-wing populist campaign is plunging Sweden’s government into a crisis

A television station reveals that the right-wing populist Sweden Democrats are running smear campaigns against other parties and the government via anonymous social media accounts. This puts the liberal-conservative coalition in trouble. And the right-wingers play the innocent.

Trolls are a nuisance. This does not mean the Nordic mythical creatures. This refers to the Internet trolls who anonymously incite, discriminate and insult governments against governments on social networks. State powers also operate with so-called troll factories in order to gain influence on opinions and democracy in other countries. Russia is accused of exactly that. But what if such a factory operates in your own country, even within your own political ranks? This is exactly what the Swedish government is currently plunged into Crisis.

What happened? An investigative reporter on the show “Kalla facta” of the television station TV4 worked undercover for months in the communications department of the right-wing populist Sweden Democrats (SD). The party supports the conservative-liberal minority government in Stockholm and works with the coalition of Moderates, Christian Democrats and Liberals. Sessions and other situations were recorded using hidden equipment. An SD employee is said to have used the word “troll factory”..

“Deep fakes”, racist posts – and harsh criticism

During its undercover research, “Kalla fakta” was able to identify 23 so-called troll accounts that were said to have been controlled by the SD’s communications department. These accounts mainly posted memes that, on the one hand, depicted political opponents, but government representatives also discredited and ridiculed. Also racist posts and such Reference to the “White Power” movement should have been among them.

According to media reports, the accounts were also used to spread propaganda and disinformation. So-called “deep fakes” – video clips that were created with the help of artificial intelligence to give the impression that a person is saying things that they never actually said – are also said to have been used. In the first three months of the year, the accounts had a combined total of more than 27 million views, the newspaper reported “Dagens Nyheter”. This all comes to light a few weeks before the European elections.

As expected, the research sparked strong criticism from the coalition parties. Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said this damaged trust. When asked whether the Sweden Democrats could be trusted, he replied on Wednesday: “I can’t answer that at the moment.” The Liberals see the agreements between the coalition and SD broken, the leader of the Christian Democrats called on SD leader Jimmie Åkesson to clean up his party.

Sweden Democrats see themselves as victims

But he washes his hands and those of his party, which he has led since 2005, innocence. There is no troll factorythe Posts from the accounts are satire and the revelations of a campaign against the Sweden Democrats. On Swedish television SVT he spoke of “campaign journalism”.

On Thursday there was a crisis meeting between the minority government and the party that gave it the majority in parliament. SD agrees that 45 articles should be deleted. There is also an apology. But deleting the accounts is out of the question for the right-wing populists, reports SVT. However, Åkesson was open to discussions.

There were still consequences: on YouTube two Sweden Democrats accounts blocked. A party member, that associated with a troll account was brought, should resigned from the SD be. And two employees in the communications department were assigned other tasks, the newspaper reports “Expresses”.

Sweden’s minority government in trouble

However, the case is not yet closed. Despite the Promise of the Sweden Democratsto moderate the tone towards the government parties: things continue to simmer in the government parties, especially among the liberals. Several local party members are calling for an end to cooperation with the right-wing populists.

But that would put the bourgeois government in dire straits. Even if the Sweden Democrats are not in government, without them the coalition does not have a majority in parliament. That is in “negative parliamentarism”Sweden is not a problem in itself, because a government here just doesn’t need a majority against it. Without the SD – after all, the second strongest party in parliament – ​​there would be a greater risk of exactly this happening. The minority government would then have an even harder time.

Prime Minister Kristersson is also criticized for his weak reaction. “We have the second largest party in Sweden defending its troll armies and questioning independent media. This is very serious,” said the leader of the Center Party. The scandal undermines the prime minister’s leadership role.

“This is the kind of case that can easily damage or even dissolve a coalition, given the importance of the right-wing party in the Swedish political landscape,” a source close to the Liberals told the portal “Euractiv”.

The damage is done. Only time will tell whether the four parties can recover from this or whether it is irreparable.

In any case, there is no peace in the affair. The newspaper “Aftonbladet” was able to reveal that the Sweden Democrats had apparently been planning online campaigns with anonymous senders since 2012. The broadcaster TV4 is also criticized. The Swedish Psychological Defense Agency has lodged a complaint against the report “Kalla fakta”, writes “Aftonbladet” further. According to the accusation, interviews with representatives of the agency were conducted in completely different contexts for the article and were taken out of context. TV4 rejects this.

So the scandal is not over yet. Outcome uncertain.

Sources: TV4, SVT, “Dagens Nyheter”, “Aftonbladet”, “Expresses”, “Sundsvalls Tidning”, “Euractiv”, Federal Agency for Civic Education