The Sweden Democrats won on ‘Making Sweden Great Again’ — what does that mean?
In the fullness of time, the parliamentary elections in Sweden on September 11 may mark a minor turning point for the West: a country long known for leftism is moving to the right.
The Sweden Democrats, once a marginal party, received 20.5 percent of the vote, second only to the left-wing Social Democrats.
In addition, the Sweden Democrats’ coalition with other parties on the right defeated a left-wing coalition linked to the current government. They will have real influence in the new parliament.
The party’s leader, Jimmie Åkesson, was quoted before the election as saying that the competition would give the Sweden Democrats an opportunity to “make Sweden great again.”
Some of the Sweden Democrats’ strongest successes have been among the young. Support among voters aged 18-21 increased from 2018 to 2022, nearly doubling from 12 percent to 22 percent according to Swedens radio.
What on earth made young Swedes, of all people, give conservatism a chance?
“The lost sense of personal security among young people is a very strong driving force behind this shift,” says Charlie Weimers, Sweden Democrat and member of the European Parliament.
Weimers spoke to the Epoch Times on September 29.
He cited an increase in violent crime by migrants, many of whom live in segregated no-go zones.
“When you read about gangs waiting outside schools to ambush students after the school day, this does something to young people,” he said.
“They know that despite years and years of denial, this is directly linked to excessive migration.”
The country’s generous social democratic policies, extended to almost everyone who walks in through the front door, may prove the undoing of the Social Democrats.
“Migration has largely been driven by the very generous welfare system,” Weimers said.
While the welfare state hands out benefits, the country’s criminal justice system struggles to hand out punishments.
For example, only 13 percent of foreign nationals in Sweden convicted of child rape were deported to their countries of origin, according to government statistics spanning 2010 to 2014.
They are not a small percentage of these criminals either.
One UnHerd analysis by Ayaan Hirsi Ali describes the overrepresentation of foreign-born individuals among rapists in Sweden.
Weimers said rising energy prices and aggressive green policies have also contributed to youthful support for the Sweden Democrats. Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg’s popularity may wane with Gen Z.
Moderate turn
As with Italy, where the national conservative brothers in Italy made great strides in the September 25 election, the legacy media have been eager to dredge up any connections between the Sweden Democrats and extremist views. (The historical connections of left-leaning European parties to global communism, and more specifically to the Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of China, remain curiously under-examined.)
In the days before the election, then Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson, a Social Democrat, warned that “the Sweden Democrats have deep roots in the Swedish neo-Nazis and other racist organizations in Sweden.”
Weimers said his own affiliation with the Sweden Democrats reflected the party’s moves toward normalization on the Swedish political scene, particularly its turn toward national conservatism.
Earlier this year, Weimers actually spoke at the National Conservatism Brussels conference, aligning himself with a growing anti-globalist movement in the West’s center-right.
He highlighted Åkesson’s zero-tolerance policy against racism in the ranks.
For a long time, Weimers explained, the Sweden Democrats were pretty much the only option for migration skeptics in ultra-liberal Sweden.
“As such, it would attract sensible opponents to open borders, and it would attract not-so-sane opponents to open borders. This is a matter of the party maturing,” he said.
Swinging towards Russia
The rise of the Sweden Democrats comes as Sweden abandons its long tradition of neutrality, officially maintained through World War II and the Cold War, to oppose Russian expansionism.
The country is expected to succeed in its bid to join the US-led North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
The Sweden Democrats have warmed to the idea and support Sweden’s accession to the alliance for Finland’s accession.
The fate of Finland’s and Sweden’s NATO applications depends on Turkey. In recent weeks, the three states have held talks to reach an agreement satisfactory to Ankara, which requires the extradition of alleged Kurdish terrorists from the Nordic countries.
Weimers explained why his party viewed NATO membership favorably despite the reluctance of potential military entanglements among some conservatives.
“Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has forced several parties to update their security assessment,” he said.
He emphasized the strategic value of the Baltic Sea, which lies on Sweden’s eastern shores. Both NATO and Russia can be expected to contest the area, making it even more difficult for Sweden to remain strictly neutral.
Nevertheless, the Sweden Democrats’ growing taste for multilateralism has its limits, even when it comes to the EU.
Describing his party as “EU-critical yet reformist”, Weimers said it wanted to govern in Brussels while focusing on cooperation over trade and other key forces in the union.
“The EU elite drew all the wrong conclusions from Brexit,” he said, arguing that the bloc’s leadership class had doubled down on the kind of policies that helped drive Britain away.