Sweden’s populist anti-immigration party is openly talking about ways to join or support a potential conservative government and end a decade of political freezing.

The Sweden Democrats’ move to create an incipient conservative bloc with two mainstream center-right parties is changing the balance in the country’s politics. They come when the rival Social Democrats try to stay in power under the new leader Magdalena Andersson, who would become Sweden’s first female prime minister.

Stefan Lofven resigned this month as Prime Minister and party leader after losing a vote of no confidence in the Riksdag.

The Sweden Democrats, who have long been shunned by all other political groups because of their roots in the neo-Nazi movement, the Sweden Democrats have been taken from the cold by the center parties when their long-standing focus on immigration and law and order has come to dominate. the political agenda. Sweden has become a European hotspot for shootings and bombings as part of a gang crime wave.

The Sweden Democrats entered the Riksdag for the first time in 2010 and received 17.5 percent in the last election in 2018, which makes them the third largest party.

As the country’s political turbulence has increased, they have come closer to their goal of forming a conservative bloc, first together with center-right parties for a common immigration policy.

This month, for the first time, they have presented a joint budget proposal with the two largest center parties, the Moderates and the Christian Democrats. Together with another center group, the four parties are a mandate from the majority in parliament.

Mattias Karlsson, the Sweden Democrats’ former acting leader and its main ideologue, told the Financial Times that the party was “quite pragmatic” when it comes to gaining influence over its main issues of “national identity, security and immigration”.

“What really matters is what we can get in terms of political content. If we feel we could change society more by sitting in government, we will probably do it. If we think we can get more by being outside and influencing every budget, then we would do it.It is not a goal in any way, he added.

The joint budget agreement ”is another step on the burden of normalizing the Sweden Democrats in party politics. It’s easy to forget how controversial they once were, ”says Nichola Aylott, associate professor at Södertörn University. Eleven years ago, when the Sweden Democrats first entered the Riksdag, they were completely frozen, both on a political and personal level.

Karlsson said that the political connection to the center-right was “greater than ever” and that the three parties “can talk openly about any topic now”.

The Moderates, the largest opposition party led by Ulf Kristerson, have said they would do so prefers to steer with other middle groups and not have the Sweden Democrats in government.

But the Center Party, one of four nominally center-right groups, has backed both Lofven and Andersson, which means that the Moderates have no choice but to snuggle up to the Sweden Democrats.

Lofven was the first Swedish head of government to lose a no-confidence vote. Andersson is now locked in talks with the Left Party’s ex-communists in an attempt to become prime minister, possibly already this week, and get through next year’s budget.

Karlsson said that he expected the Social Democrats to take a tougher line against crime and immigration during Andersson before the election in September in an attempt to win back the working class.

“They will use this opportunity to go into opposition to themselves. There will be many criminal rules to try to get some of our voters back. But the interesting thing is: the working group has lost its workers,” he added.

Sweden has become accustomed to bombings and crimes such as a 14-year-old being shot on Saturday in the central town of Eskilstuna. Rapper Einar, linked to several criminal figures and kidnapped by a fellow musician, was recently shot dead in what the police described as an execution-like murder.

Karlsson blamed most of the Social Democrats and Moderates, in power 2006-14, for what he called Sweden’s “loss of innocence”. He added: “We have received more immigrants than we could integrate and in its place, an American-inspired gangster culture has taken root.”

He said that the left preferred to talk about “more teachers, more social workers and to plant more flowers”, but even if there was eventually room for that, the priority would be to beat down the gangs.

“As long as the gangs are still there and threatening the social structure in these areas, you have to go in really hard against them and remove them. And then you go in with social measures,” he added.