It's a hard time to re-write whole article for blog version so I finally decided to just slightly modify it. It is still in an academic writing style, but I include more pictures here and set some sub-title for each section. Hope you will enjoy this. Again, if you find any mistake I made, just leave message to me. Tack så mycket!
Jimme Åkesson, the leader of Sweden Democrats, interviewed before an SVT party-leader debate in 2014. He is just 35 in the 2014 general election. In fact, he is already the party leader in 2005 when he is 26. (Source: Wikipedia)
Sweden Democrat: the Racist Party in Sweden
Sweden is considered as the best country in the world, especially in the field of equality. However, the country once noted with its equality is actually become more radical toward the heterogeneity of ethnicity in Sweden. Before 2010, there is no radical right-wing populist party with anti-immigration sentiments have achieved the 4% threshold for having seats inside the parliament (Johansson and Zarpan, 2015). In the election of 2010, the party Sweden Democrats (Sverigedemokraterna, SD) was for the first time had their chance to speak in the parliament. After that, SD grew even larger from 5.70% (20 seats) to 12.86% (49 seats) (Valmyndigheten, n.d), and gained their influence in the election of 2014. This consequence had made Sweden joining the recent development of growing radical right-wing party in Western-Europe (Johansson and Zarpan, 2015).
SD party was for the first time having seats inside the parliament (Riksdag) in 2010.
They gained a lot more seats (49) in 2014 general election.
How's the party established and developed?
The Sweden Democrats called itself as a social conservative party with nationalist values (Sweden Democrats, 2011), and is notorious for lots of its anti-immigrant speech. The SD party was established in 1988. In the early stage of the party, they kept using the slogan of a Swedish racist movement, called “Bevara Sverige Svenskt (Keep Sweden Swedish)” as theirs, which is very obviously a sign of racist spirit. The SD party became more well-known and got more influence after the elections in 2006. The party succeeded in several southern counties of Sweden, and therefore national support for SD started to grow. In 2010 general elections, the Sweden Democrats party was for the first time having seats inside the parliament. In the period of this 4 years, there were several scandals being revealed to be racist contents, such as the well-known “iron pipe scandal”, and thus these events resulted in several SD’s politicians left their seats. However, the party kept getting a rise in support, and they finally reached the third biggest party in Sweden receiving 12.86% of the votes in the 2014 general election. Nowadays, they are the first party that could have almost the same scale and influence as the Social Democrats party and the Moderates party within 100 years.
"Bevara Sverige Svenskt (Keep Sweden Swedish)" - Slogan in the early stage of SD
(Source: Wikipedia)
What's their main ideology?
The racist elements are actually deep inside the ideology of Sweden democrats, including the insistence on assimilation into Swedish national identity, anti-multiculturalism policy, and most importantly the discrimination to many other ethnicities. First of all, the Sweden democrats claimed that the nation is defined by the common language, history, appearance, and culture in the early stage after the establishment of the party, and included the common religion in the 2000s (Johansson and Zarpan, 2015). Later, they further modified their attitude so that a non-Swedish born person can also be a Swedish: anyone who can “assimilate” themselves into Swedish culture, language and identity can be accepted as a person with a Swedish national identity, which means that one must abandon all their original culture and identity to become a Swedish. Secondly, they are anti-multicultural (Johansson and Zarpan, 2015). From their perspective, a society with many cultures co-existence is unstable, and integration of Swedish culture and immigrant’s culture should be against because of the result of incomplete Swedish culture. Therefore, the only allowed solution is the assimilation of immigrant’s culture into the Swedish culture. Last but not least, the Sweden democrats discriminate those who are not white and Christian people, including the Sami (aborigine of north Europe), Jews, and especially the muslin (Johansson and Zarpan, 2015). As time passed by, the SD party is not as extreme as they were in the beginning. Nevertheless, they still put emphasis on the influence from others to Swedish Christian and proclaim that other religions threat the Swedish culture and society, especially Islam. The islamophobia is contained inside the core of the party’s ideology, which is an obvious cultural racism (Pred, 1998). To sum up, the Sweden Democrats are the party who want to preserve the original white, Swedish, Christian culture by means of getting rid of all the other differences, including different culture and religion.
The vote percentage for SD party is higher in the southern Sweden,
and increased a lot in 2014 general election.
(Source: Svenska Dagbladet "Diagramkavalkad: Sverigedemokraterna")
and increased a lot in 2014 general election.
(Source: Svenska Dagbladet "Diagramkavalkad: Sverigedemokraterna")
Who vote them?
The Sweden democrat is mainly supported by the people who affected by the immigrants and refugee more. As we can see in the statistics of 2014 general election, those who voted for the SD is mainly in the southern Sweden. Specifically, the votes for the party is big in Scania and Blekinge, which is the region affected by the refugee more, particularly 14% in Malmö, 19% in Landskrona, and 30% in Sjöbo (Valmyndigheten, n.d). After the general election in 2014, the SD still kept growing their influence and support from people, especially after the refugee crisis happens in 2015. A new poll released in January 2016 said the biggest party in Sweden, the Social Democrats, decreased their support 23.2%, but the Sweden Democrats’ percentage increased to the 18.2% (Christine Olsson, 2016). Although there are some women and immigrants are standing with the Sweden Democrats party, the majority of the supporters are male (Mulinari and Anders, 2014; Pettersson, 2016). Also, as Maddy Savage noted in a The Local article on September 15, 2014, the SD’s charismatic leader Jimmie Åkesson successfully attracted votes from young people during the age between 15 and 24, which is a period when unemployment has bounced between 20 and 25 percent - about three times higher than overall joblessness in Sweden. This can also reflect the reason why these young people and the southern Swedish voted for SD.
The poll released in December 2015 shows that SD party gained a lot of their percentage.
The poll released in January 2016 shows the percentage decrease of S party (ruling party) resulted in a 3-major-parties political environment.
What are their main policies?
Due to their abundant racist speeches and negative attitudes toward asylum and immigration policy, according to the current news noted on The Local on September 11 and October 9, 2016, all main parties in the Swedish parliament refuse to cooperate with the Sweden Democrats. Their goal is to restrict the foreigner immigrant to Sweden which may be a huge burden to the national finance, and thus the goal is welcomed by those who with racial hatred or faced the difficulties in finding a job, especially higher percentage among young, low-skilled and often unemployed people (Radio Sweden, 2014). As the news noted in Radio Sweden on August 8, 2014, except for the racist policy, the Sweden Democrat’s main policies are to lower the tax and guarantee the elderly higher pensions, and these policies again attract those who believe the refugee and immigrants will worsen their situation. Therefore, the worse the current government deals with these issues, the more support the Sweden Democrats will get.Outlook - Another Trump in Europe?
In conclusion, the Sweden Democrat is still growing stronger when it comes to the severe situations about the refugee and immigrants. Despite the party got rid of its neo-Nazi related member in the early stage after party establishment, the Sweden Democrat still remains its racist core ideology which reflects on most of their policies. Therefore, most of their supports are from the people affected by the refugee and immigrants more, including the young, low-skilled, the unemployed people. Although none of the parties in the Sweden parliament willing to cooperate with them, the Sweden Democrats party will soon be an inevitable issue that other parties should be careful of, and especially the party leader Jimme Åkesson has already claimed that in 2018 general election, coalition of center-right parties will have no option but to cooperate with them if they want to form a government. In the time of whole Europe struggling with the refugee problems, we know lots of racist parties are growing. If the crisis last for long or worsen, it may thus affect the politics within EU. Who knows whether there will be another Trump in Europe?
It is always the easiest way to blame those immigrants or refugees rather than thinking deeply about what's wrong with our own country. Similarly, it is also very easy to blame their racism. I believe we should always think with empathy. Maybe those who have racist thinking are worried about the national finance, or maybe concerned about the welfare system, or everything that may worsen their life, or make them feel everything uncertain. Therefore, in my opinion, we should think whether there is a way to accept much refugees as possible for the justice reason, and in the meantime ensure the people for the long survival of country's finance & welfare system. I believe this is what a good politician should do.
Reference
Christine Olsson, “Sweden’s Social Democrat party hits record low in poll”, The Local January 24, 2016, accessed October 24, 2016, URL: https://www.thelocal.se/20160124/swedens-social-democrats-hit-record-low-in-poll
Johansson, Martin, and Zarpan, Hooda. (2015). “The Sweden Democrats: An analysis of the ideology of a radical right-wing populist party over time”.
Mulinari, Diana, and Anders Neergaard. "We are Sweden Democrats because we care for others: Exploring racisms in the Swedish extreme right." European Journal of Women's Studies 21.1 (2014): 43-56.
Pettersson, Katarina, Karmela Liebkind, and Inari Sakki. "You who are an immigrant–why are you in the Sweden Democrats?." Discourse & Society 27.6 (2016): 624-641.
Pred, Allan (1998), “Memory and the cultural reworking of crisis: racisms and the current moment of danger in Sweden, or wanting it like before.” Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 16(6), 635-664.
Radio Sweden (2014), “The Sweden Democrats - Sverigedemokraterna”, Radio Sweden, August 8, 2014
Richard Öhrvall, “Diagramkavalkad: Sverigedemokraterna”, 30 October, 2014, accessed October 24, 2016, URL: http://blog.svd.se/trehundratolv/2014/10/30/diagramkavalkad-sverigedemokraterna/
Savage, Maddy (2014), “How the Sweden Democrats went mainstream,” The Local, September 15, 2014
Sweden Democrats (2011), "Principprogram" 2011. Stockholm: Sverigedemokraterna. Archived from the original on 25 June 2014.
The Local (2016), “Swedish PM rules out talks with 'racist' SD party,” The Local, Sep. 11, 2016, accessed October 25, 2016, URL: https://www.thelocal.se/20160911/swedish-pm-rules-out-talks-with-racist-sd,
The Local (2016), “Sweden's Moderate leader rules out deal with populists,” The Local, October 9, 2016, accessed October 25, 2016, URL: https://www.thelocal.se/20161009/swedens-moderate-leader-rules-out-deal-with-populists
Valmyndigheten (2014), “Röster- Val 2014” accessed October 24, 2016, URL: http://www.val.se/val/val2014/slutresultat/R/rike/index.html
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