Sweden's
election could bring far right a place at the heart of government
By Simon
Johnson
September
10, 202611:05 AM GMT+2Updated 22 hours ago
·
Summary
·
Swedish vote will decide if far right sit in government
·
Polls show tight race, left opposition with narrow advantage
·
Complicated task for left or right to form majority
·
Swedes go to polls on Sept. 13
·
Far right is reshaping Europe's political landscape
STOCKHOLM,
Sept 10-(Reuters) - Swedes will vote on Sunday in a tight election that has
effectively become a referendum on whether the far-right Sweden Democrats
should join the government and cement their journey from pariahs to trusted
partners in a country once seen as one of Europe's most liberal.
The
party, with roots in the neo-Nazi fringe, has around 19% of the vote,
according to the latest polls, and the ruling centre-right minority coalition
has vowed to bring them into its bloc to secure Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson
a second term in office.
"We
have agreed to campaign on a platform of building a common, majority government
and that I will lead that government," Kristersson told Reuters on the
campaign trail in late August.
The
election will show whether Swedish voters want to deepen a political shift that
has already upended decades of consensus on immigration and national identity,
and turned one of Europe's most open societies into a testing ground for
tougher policies on integration, citizenship and border controls.
Kristersson
has credited his cooperation in parliament with the Sweden Democrat leader
Jimmie Akesson, since 2022, for delivering growth, lower prices for energy and
food, reducing gang crime and shootings and cutting asylum numbers to record lows. He has promised to deepen ties after the Sept.
13 vote and give the party cabinet positions.
Over the
last four years, the government has abolished permanent residency for refugees,
tightened welfare rules and boosted expulsions of those without a right to
stay.
Asylum
numbers have dropped to a 40-year low and while Kristersson says the focus will
now be on integration, the Sweden Democrats want to go further.
"In
Sweden it is Swedish culture, the Swedish language, Swedish laws, Swedish
norms, Swedish morals and Swedish traditions that apply," Mattias
Karlsson, Sweden Democrat lawmaker and one of Akesson's closest allies, told
Reuters.
"If
you can't accept that, you have to find somewhere else to live."
Despite a
consensus over tight immigration policies, many Swedes still feel a deep unease
about the far right and polls point to a knife-edge vote with the centre-left
opposition, which is backing Social Democrats leader Magdalena Andersson for
prime minister, holding a small but narrowing lead.
"If
the Sweden Democrats enter government, that would have an enormously negative
impact on the liberal ideals of our country," said Birgitta Ohlsson,
European Affairs minister from 2010 to 2014, and now a Center Party lawmaker.
"We've
already seen the effects while they've been outside government, and it would be
ten times worse."
NEW
LANDSCAPE
The rise
of the far right has reshaped Europe's political landscape, with such parties
already sharing power in countries including Finland, Italy, Croatia and the Czech Republic, while
posing growing challenges in France and Germany.
Akesson's
Sweden Democrats have spent the last four years as Kristersson's main
parliamentary backers and some analysts say the election may be less a
watershed than a recognition of Akesson's success in shedding the party's
extremist baggage. The party apologised in 2025 for past neo-Nazi and
antisemitic views.
"The
election is a referendum on the Sweden Democrats; whether we continue to go
down a far-right path," Jan Guillou, author and political commentator,
told Reuters.
Policies
that a decade ago many Swedes would have viewed as a rejection of the country's
liberal values have gained acceptance across much of the political spectrum.
The blocs
have also converged in several areas of key concern to voters with both promising stronger welfare, continued
support for Ukraine, rearmament and measures to ease a cost-of-living crisis
that has hit many households hard.
"I
think you'll see a continued normalization of the Sweden Democrats," said
Lars Tragardh, a historian and author who led work on a government cultural
heritage list criticised at the time by some as too narrow and exclusionary.
"It's
time to tone down the hysteria."
FURTHER
SHIFT?
Critics,
however, fear the Sweden Democrats' promises to end multiculturalism, restore
traditional Swedish values and ban some forms of Muslim dress could deepen social divisions and
shift the political centre of gravity even further right.
"I'm
afraid more people will be expelled. I'm worried about the press, free speech
and the freedom to demonstrate," said Kurdo Baksi, an author and
anti-racism campaigner, speaking on the sidelines of a pro-immigration
demonstration in Stockholm.
In a
Facebook campaign message, Andersson said voters' choice was not whether she or
the incumbent Kristersson would become prime minister, but whether the Sweden Democrats would shape policy on
defence, schools, culture and finance.
"That
would be a very different Sweden," she said.
Even if
she wins, Andersson faces a daunting task in building a stable coalition.
The four
opposition parties, the Social Democrats, Greens, Left Party and Centre Party,
broadly agree on increasing welfare and public spending.
But they
differ on key policies, from a tax on billionaires to whether Sweden should
build new nuclear reactors, and the Centre Party refuses to sit in the same
government as the Left Party.
Reporting
by Simon Johnson, additional reporting by Johan Ahlander; editing by Niklas
Pollard, Alexandra Hudson
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