Sweden Democrats – who are the Swedish Democrats, will they win and what are the right-wing party’s politics?
The populist party has been riding the wave of anti-migrant feeling in the Scandinavian country amid worries about rising violent gang crime in immigrant communities
SWEDISH Democrats have seen a surge of support as one of Europe’s most liberal nations see a swathe of its people turning right amid fears over immigration.
An influx of 163,000 asylum seekers in 2015 – the most in Europe in relation to the country’s population of 10 million – has polarised voters and fractured the long-standing political consensus.
Who are the Swedish Democrats?
The populist party has recently distanced itself from its far right past, with members caught being racist facing expulsion.
Since the 2015 wave of immigration, the party was reinvented as a nationalist party which can appeal to people who reject racism but want to stem mass migration.
Its success follows a rise in popularity for other far-right parties in Europe amid growing anxiety over national identity, the effects of globalisation and fears over immigration boosted partly by conflicts in the Middle East and North Africa.
Sweden saw itself as a “humanitarian superpower” for years, but a rise in gang violence in areas of high unemployment has won support for the Sweden Democrats.
Will they win?
The day after the September 9 election, it became clear the Swedish Democrats came third.
It received a little more than one in six votes, or 17.6 per cent.
Its showing was not as strong as the one-in-five polls had predicted, but good for a third-place finish that had the party’s leader telling supporters, “We won”.
What are the right-wing party’s politics?
The main policy that distinguishes them from others is its focus on reducing economic immigration which mainly has its root in the Middle East, Africa, Latin America, the Balkan countries, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
It wants to freeze immigration and repatriate illegal immigrants, criminals who are foreign nationals and those who have had their asylum applications turned down.
The party also wants to bring Sweden out of the EU.
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