The Sweden Democrats, a far-right party, are part of the government for the first time ever
On Monday, Sweden’s Riksdag confirmed Moderate party leader Ulf Kristersson as prime minister as head of a three-party minority coalition that for the first time includes a role for the anti-immigration Sweden Democrats in the government.
The coalition of Moderates, Christian Democrats and Liberals plans to cut taxes, maximize benefits, tighten immigration rules and give police more powers as part of a policy deal with the Sweden Democrats, now the largest party on the right after September’s election.
Not only will Kristersson be dependent on the Sweden Democrats, a party with roots in the white supremacist fringe, but his government is facing an economic downturn, war in Ukraine and a cost-of-living crisis that has sent food and electricity prices soaring.
Kristersson replaces Magdalena Andersson, who leads Sweden’s largest party, the Social Democrats, who are now in opposition. He supports Sweden’s historic bid to join NATO after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February, although that bid is currently opposed by Turkey.
– Sweden is a country that experiences several parallel crises at the same time, says Kristersson to reporters. “I don’t think anyone thinks the challenges facing the new government are easy.”
In the September 11 election, the right-wing bloc secured a narrow majority, winning 176 seats in the 349-member parliament.
The Sweden Democrats received 20.5 percent of the vote in September, compared to 19.1 percent for the Moderates, but the Sweden Democrats’ leader, Jimmie Åkesson, could not get enough support to lead a government.
However, his party has had a major impact on the new government’s policies and marked a watershed in Swedish politics, long seen as synonymous with liberal values and openness.
Close out of locker spaces
The Sweden Democrats were founded in the 1980s by right-wing extremists. Åkesson took over the party in 2005, but until 2018 no party would have anything to do with them.
Their message that decades of overly generous immigration policies are behind an increase in shootings and gang crime has struck a chord with voters in recent years.
Åkesson said he would have preferred government seats for the Sweden Democrats, but he supported the deal that would give his party influence over government policy, including immigration and criminal justice.
The coalition’s policy is “authoritarian, conservative and nationalist,” said Green Party leader Per Bolund.
Successive governments have tightened immigration rules over the past decade, but the new coalition will go even further to the right.
Asylum status will be temporary and the government plans to make it harder for new immigrants to get benefits. There will also be a review of incentives for voluntary repatriation “with a particular focus on those who have not been integrated.”
The leader of the Sweden Democrats said the new government’s term would mark a “paradigm shift” in immigration policy characterized by “order, reason and common sense”. In terms of crime, the police will be able to take tougher measures against criminal gangs and the penalties for gang crimes will be longer.
The centre-left opposition criticized the new government coalition harshly and Lena Hallgren from the Social Democrats called it “a strange construction”.
Nooshi Dadgostar, the leader of the former Communist Left Party, said her parents, who fled Iran, could never have imagined that Sweden would embark on an authoritarian path.
“What is happening now in Sweden is terrifying,” she told the Riksdag.