Sweden will vote in a knife-edge election in the shadow of gangland violence
Sweden goes to the polls on Sunday in a close parliamentary election that could bring the extreme right into the corridors of power after a relentless campaign against immigration and gangland violence.
While the Social Democrats, led by Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson, are on track to remain the largest party, her left-wing coalition is neck and neck with a right-wing bloc including the nationalist Sweden Democrats.
Party leaders were confronted during a televised debate on Wednesday by a woman named Susanne whose 12-year-old son was killed in a gang shooting, highlighting an organized crime epidemic that has blighted Sweden’s streets.
Andersson responded by calling for more police and tougher sentences to tackle what she called a horrific wave of violence, while opposition leader Ulf Kristersson raged: “No other country has what we have.”
The Sweden Democrats and their leader Jimmie Åkesson have tried to capitalize on concerns about crime and immigration with a promise that “Sweden will be good again”, which has prompted comparisons with former US President Donald Trump’s populist rhetoric.
– Basically, the Sweden Democrats’ argument is that the most necessary measure is to limit further immigration, says Anders Sannerstedt, expert on the extreme right and immigration at Lund University. The national.
Once considered a pariah in Swedish politics, SD will now emerge as the strongest party on the right and would enjoy significant influence over a conservative government even if it did not formally join a coalition.
A polling average published by broadcaster SVT in the final days of the campaign showed the left at 49.7 percent and the right at 49.4 percent, suggesting the rival blocs could be separated by just one seat in parliament.
Such an outcome could prolong political uncertainty in Sweden after Andersson came to power in 2021 at the head of a fragile coalition, which only survived a confidence vote after an outspoken Iranian-born member of parliament agreed to stand down.
Andersson has sought to capitalize on nervousness for the Sweden Democrats by highlighting their links to the neo-Nazi fringe, such as a recent case where an employee turned up to celebrate Nazi Germany’s invasion of Poland.
Kristersson has been under scrutiny over a meeting in 2018 with a Holocaust survivor where he was quoted as ruling out any cooperation with the Sweden Democrats, something he later denied having said.
The saga took a new turn this week when Kristersson’s party apologized for buying a Google ad that drew voters’ attention away from the incident when they searched for the name of the survivor, Hedi Fried.
The Sweden Democrats “would have a big influence on every decision made by the government, and it’s a party with roots among the racist organizations in Sweden,” Andersson said on the campaign trail.
The prime minister was cheered by Sweden’s allies after the country applied to join NATO following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, turning the page with Finland on a traditional stance of neutrality.
But with that issue now settled between the major parties, foreign policy has played little role in the election campaign as the parties have focused more on immigration, crime and the economy, Sannerstedt said.
“The issue of integration and refugees has been one of the big issues in the election campaign so far,” he said, although the energy crisis unfolding in Europe has also caught voters’ attention.
“There are several issues at the moment, one is how to deal with housing segregation, the second issue is about the quality of schools, the third is about how to deal with the high unemployment among people of non-European origin.”
Swedish police have said the country stands out in Europe for having a rising rate of gun deaths, particularly among young people who end up in the criminal underworld in vulnerable areas.
Another right-wing party, the Christian Democrats, had complained that although “Sweden is still a good place to live… many feel they no longer recognize their home”.
The Social Democrats, Sweden’s dominant party since the 1930s, promise to improve schools, tackle unemployment and increase employment opportunities to weaken gang recruitment, while toughening penalties.
But Mr Åkesson accused the prime minister of being afraid by refusing to debate him on Swedish television, as parties make their final push for votes in a nail-biting election.
“It’s going to be a very close race indeed,” Sannerstedt said.
Updated: September 10, 2022, at 06.00