Sweden on “high alert” for election meddling amid Russia’s tensions | Sweden
Sweden has said it is on “high alert” for outside intervention in its upcoming election amid heightened tensions with Russia.
The Scandinavian country’s recently re-established psychological defense agency said it had seen increased activity from foreign sources following its application to join NATO and was prepared for the possibility of “something exceptional” ahead of the Sept. 11 election.
After a turbulent period for Swedish politics, including the resignation of Stefan Löfven as prime minister, the rise of Magdalena Andersson, the country’s first female leader, and threats from Vladimir Putin, the latest polls are exceptionally close in a highly charged campaign with a strong focus on immigration.
In what would be a seismic shift to the right, polls suggest that the Sweden Democrats, right-wing populists with neo-Nazi roots, may be on the way to replacing the Moderates as Sweden’s second largest party.
Generally speaking, elections have been a race between left-wing parties led by Andersson’s Social Democrats and a center coalition led by the Moderates, but even the latter party has gone from urging Swedes to “open your hearts” to refugees in just a few years. to embrace the Sweden Democrats – a party whose leader Jimmie Åkesson has called for asylum to be cut to “close to zero”.
Sweden’s perceived vulnerabilities to foreign disinformation include about immigration, violent crime, schools, jobs, pensions and rising energy costs.
Mats Engström, a visiting fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations and a former adviser to a Social Democrat foreign minister, said that while it was no surprise that violent crime is in the spotlight as fatal shootings increase, the discussion of linking it to migration “has for years been fueled by Russian and other troll factories”.
He said the Swedish electoral system was “robust” but disinformation aimed at the end of the election campaign would be much more difficult to counter.
Mikael Östlund, spokesperson for the psychological defense, said: “”We are on high alert at all times, but we are aware that there may be an opportunity that someone would want to harm Sweden, influence the Swedish democratic process. to do something exceptional towards the end of the election campaign.”
The Cold War-era government body, intended to protect democracy, freedom of opinion and independence, was reinstated in January amid rising fears of Russian aggression.
Östlund said it saw “increased activity” from abroad, some of which was “quite intense”, following Sweden’s decision to apply to join NATO. Ongoing disinformation campaigns, believed to come from Russia, include claims that Sweden is a weak country and is not safe for refugees.
“It’s something that we’ve seen before from Russian actors and also individuals,” Östlund said. – We know that foreign powers and countries that have the capacity may be interested in harming Sweden and harming the elections, or trying to widen the gaps between ethnic groups.
“So we’re prepared for the eventuality that in the last few weeks, the closer we get to election day, something could happen that we have quite a bit of time to counter.”
In the event of foreign intervention, options to counter it include publicizing the breach and naming the source. A recently launched information campaign warned “don’t be fooled” (don’t be fooled) and encouraged people to consider the source and publisher of information before sharing it online. A free online course from the agency shows how to protect yourself from misinformation.
The election also faces the threat of intervention by individuals and extremists. A prosecutor confirmed last week that Center Party leader Annie Lööf was the intended target of a suspected terrorist attack, which killed another woman, at a political festival on Gotland in July.
Frederik Bratt, the Swedish Security Service’s election commander, said that while there were no signs of an increased threat to the election, the ongoing threat from lone actors was “complex and a challenge”.
Engström said that if the Social Democrats held on to power after the election, it would largely depend on Andersson’s personal popularity, but if they lose the party’s focus on crime during the campaign, that will be called into question. He said the Moderates also faced a backlash among the party’s former voters over its embrace of the Sweden Democrats, which could prove “catastrophic”.
– If Moderate leader Ulf Kristersson can still form a new government, he will be very dependent on the Sweden Democrats, says Engström. “This will affect Sweden’s policy internationally as well, for example lower ambitions in climate policy.”
In Rinkeby, a district in Stockholm with a large immigrant population, Abebe Hailu, 69, ran a campaign for the Social Democrats on Wednesday in front of a shipping container decorated with a poster that read “Our Stockholm region can be better”. He said the issues people care about the most are welfare, schools, healthcare and jobs.
“Our party thinks you should invest in children first and foremost, before that happens,” he said.
Welfare is the solution to problems in Swedish society, he added. “We need to reduce the class gap between rich and poor and that means good schools for the children.”