With a handful of overseas ballots yet to be counted, it appears Swedish voters are set to give a right-wing bloc of four parties, including one with neo-Nazi roots, a single-seat majority in the Riksdag parliament and the ability to form a new government. The far-right populist Sweden Democrats (SD), led by Jimmie Akesson, has taken 21 per cent of the vote, narrowly passing out the Moderates to claim the mantle of the leadership of the right.
The vote has apparently left prime minister Magdalena Andersson, whose Social Democrats has headed the centre-left government for the past eight years, tantalisingly close, but out of reach of re-election. On the back of a campaign dominated by gang crime and the party’s “net zero immigration” promise, the rise of the SD to possible ministerial office parallels that of other Nordic far-right parties in recent years. The Progress Party entered government in Norway and the True Finns in Finland.
The SD will, however, be mindful of the rise and eclipse of the Danish People’s Party, which shocked Copenhagen in 2015 by becoming the largest right-wing group, but then refused to enter government. It has since been all-but wiped out in opinion polls, punishment for refusing to take office. The SD makes no bones about wanting cabinet representation, even going so far as to suggest, like Giorgia Meloni’s far-right Brothers of Italy, that it has a call on the prime-ministerial job.
That would be completely unacceptable to potential coalition partners, and although the SD passed out Ulf Kristersson’s Moderates, the latter can confidently expect to be the PM nominee of the right bloc. A coalition agreement may, however, take some time to agree. Like the Brothers the SD has worked to extend its base by softening the party’s fascist image, notably its traditional anti-Islam and anti-EU messages, and even changing the party logo from a flaming torch to a floppy flower. But when Sweden assumes the EU presidency in January its EU partners may find rather uncomfortable meetings with SD ministers in the chair.