SE Cupp: Right-wing nationalism is coming to … Sweden?
As we look ahead to midterm elections, where voter denialists are up in 27 states, it’s still mind-boggling to think how we got here in just a few years. And the answer, most bluntly, is an increase in right-wing nationalism.
Having been dormant for some time, the contours of this new and undoubtedly rising movement are by now well known. There are many traits, most of which are deeply troubling if you are a fan of democracy, including but not limited to: a preference for national, religious and ethnic purity; an antipathy towards migrants and immigrants; an open hostility to the press and a desire to punish critics; and an apologetic or even approving approach to authoritarianism.
While all of this simply describes the right-wing nationalism encouraged and nurtured by Donald Trump here in America, it also describes a startling rise in authoritarianism in other countries, most notably Brazil and Hungary.
Elsewhere, from Boris Johnson and now Liz Truss in Britain to Marine Le Pen in France, right-wing nationalism is gaining a bigger audience, not a smaller one.
This is disturbing enough. Whether in Latin America or Europe, an embrace of nationalism, and in some cases fascism, recalls some truly horrific moments in world history. But what if I told you that right-wing nationalism also won in some less expected places – say, Sweden?
Yes, the same Sweden that consistently ranks among them happiestthe most freelythe most liberal, friendliest to immigrants, free for journaliststhe least racistand safest for LGBTQ travel countries in the world.
Last weekthe same Sweden held general elections to elect the 349 members of the Riksdag, or legislative assembly. The right-wing Sweden Democrats won a net gain of 11 new seats, for a total of 73, surpassing the moderates and making it the second most popular party in the country after the left-wing Social Democrats.
This was shocking to many Swedes and election observers, according to Elisabeth Asbrink, author of “Made in Sweden: 25 Ideas That Created a Country.” The Sweden Democrats’ success, she writes in The New York Times this week, “marks the end of Swedish exceptionalism, the idea that the country stood out both morally and materially.”
As she describes it, the party’s origins go back to 1988 and a neo-Nazi group called BSS, or Keep Sweden Swedish. The far-right movement has “profited from the country’s growing inequalities, fostering an obsession with crime and an antipathy towards migrants.”
It was once easy to think of this new political populist era as a uniquely American response to uniquely American problems. Trump was, after all, a uniquely American invention, and he both benefited from and pandered to uniquely American divisions and grievances.
But we are clearly not as special as we thought. A rise in populism in India and Pakistan, as well as PolandThe Netherlands, Spain, Italy, France and now even Sweden prove that the movement is global, and so is its appeal.
It may be comforting to know that America is not the only democracy at risk—that we are not uniquely susceptible to these dark impulses, that this is not one of those “only in America” problems.
But that doesn’t change the fact that none of this is good. The rise of right-wing nationalism is corrosive and disheartening, and the more it spreads, the worse it is for the world.
SE Cupp hosts “SE Cupp Unfiltered” on CNN.
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Opinion | SEE Cupp columns