{"id":112503,"date":"2026-06-19T23:29:30","date_gmt":"2026-06-19T23:29:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/112503\/"},"modified":"2026-06-19T23:29:30","modified_gmt":"2026-06-19T23:29:30","slug":"how-swedens-far-right-went-from-political-pariah-to-powerbroker-the-far-right-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/112503\/","title":{"rendered":"How Sweden\u2019s far right went from political pariah to powerbroker | The Far Right News"},"content":{"rendered":"

There is an expression in Swedish, \u201cto be let into the warmth\u201d \u2013 meaning to be welcomed into the fold. In a country shaped by long, dark winters, the image speaks for itself.<\/p>\n

A decade ago, the Sweden Democrats (SD), a far-right anti-immigration party with roots in Sweden\u2019s neo-Nazi movement, were firmly shut out in the cold.<\/p>\n

Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list<\/p>\n

But after the 2018 general election, a political deadlock prompted right-wing parties to rethink their alliances \u2013 and their principles.<\/p>\n

Today, SD is Sweden\u2019s second-largest party, providing the parliamentary support that keeps the current government in power. It is a party once shunned by every major political force, now far into the warmth.<\/p>\n

From skinheads to suits<\/p>\n

SD were founded in the 1980s by Nazi sympathisers and born out of the far-right, skinhead movement \u201cKeep Sweden Swedish\u201d.<\/p>\n

Its first auditor, Gustaf Ekstrom, was a veteran of the armed combat branch of the SS, a key organisation of Nazi Germany, and other executive members had belonged to violent far-right movements<\/a>.<\/p>\n

After the 1990s, SD attempted to \u201cclean up their act\u201d in order to escape being seen as neo-Nazis, Morgan Finnsio, a Swedish researcher who studies far-right movements at the Expo Foundation, told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n

\"STOCKHOLM,Members and supporters of the far-right SD react to the results of the exit polls at their party election centre on September 9, 2018 [Michael Campanella\/Getty]<\/p>\n

One example he gave is their 2003 adoption of the idea of \u201copen Swedishness\u201d, meaning that Swedish identity is not biologically exclusive and that assimilation is \u2013 theoretically \u2013 possible, explained Finnsio.<\/p>\n

In the period from 2014 until 2020, SD made further cosmetic changes and gestures towards moderation, rebranding themselves as a \u201cconservative\u201d party, he said.<\/p>\n

SD\u2019s leadership expelled the party\u2019s youth wing for \u201cextremism\u201d, threw out some members, albeit inconsistently, and discouraged the sharing of far-right<\/a> alternative media content, Finnsio said.<\/p>\n

It also dropped its demand to leave the European Union and its opposition to NATO membership.<\/p>\n

Daphne Halikiopoulou, chair in comparative politics at the University of York in England, told Al Jazeera that SD has trodden the same path as several other European hard far-right political parties, gradually altering their rhetoric and repackaging themselves as borderline far-right.<\/p>\n

The party, she said, has \u201ccleansed itself of its extremist elements\u201d and rebranded itself with an innocent-looking flower as its logo, rather than a Viking.<\/p>\n

Political inroads<\/p>\n

In September 2010, SD crossed the 4 percent threshold and entered parliament for the first time, winning 20 seats.<\/p>\n

Having spent years forming a narrative linking immigration to crime, terrorism and national security, the 2015 refugee crisis handed the SD the moment they had been waiting for.<\/p>\n

That year, an estimated 1.3 million asylum seekers arrived in Europe. In Sweden alone, 163,000 arrived \u2013 the highest annual figure in the country\u2019s history and the largest per capita intake in the EU.<\/p>\n

According to Sweden\u2019s annual SOM survey, immigration became the single most important issue for 53 percent of Swedish voters almost overnight.<\/p>\n

\"swedenProtesters carry signs against the SD party during a demonstration against anti-immigration politics in Stockholm, October 4, 2010 [Bob Strong\/Reuters]<\/p>\n

By the 2018 election, SD had capitalised, winning 17.5 percent of the vote and 62 seats \u2013 making them the third largest party.<\/p>\n

It was at this point that SD, which had largely been treated as a \u201cpariah party\u201d, began to be welcomed into the political mainstream, Zina al-Dewany, a political commentator and editorial writer for the media outlet Aftonbladet, told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n

In a series of symbolic moments, one party after another changed its stance between 2018 and 2022, al-Dewany said.<\/p>\n

This began with the Christian Democrats (KD) in July 2019 when its leader, Ebba Busch, met SD leader Jimmie Akesson for a face-to-face meal, a moment which became known as \u201cthe meatball lunch\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Moderate Party was next to reach out, with its head Ulf Kristersson \u2013 now Sweden\u2019s prime minister \u2013 opting for a traditional Swedish fika, a Swedish coffee break with cinnamon buns and small talk \u2013 with Akesson in his office.<\/p>\n

The seemingly banal setting carried political weight, signalling a breakdown of the cordon sanitaire and a broken promise that Kristersson had made to prominent psychologist, author and Holocaust survivor Hedi Fried in 2018 that he would never cooperate with the SD, which has a history of anti-Semitism.<\/p>\n

The Tido agreement<\/p>\n

Then, in October 2022, the liberals opened the door to the SD, and four right-wing party leaders secluded themselves inside the historic Tido Castle.<\/p>\n

There they signed a landmark 62-page contract \u2013 known as the Tido Agreement \u2013 establishing Sweden\u2019s current coalition government and enacting major policy shifts on crime and immigration.<\/p>\n

The formal agreement had been made, but the Liberals still maintained a boundary: They would negotiate policies with SD, but they refused to serve in a formal government cabinet alongside them.<\/p>\n

\"swedenFrom right, SD leader Jimmie Akesson; Minister for Energy, Business and Industry Ebba Busch; Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson; and Education and Integration Minister Simona Mohamsson attend a news conference in Stockholm, Sweden, March 6, 2026 [Tom Little\/Reuters]The final embrace<\/p>\n

Then, in May 2026, that final boundary was finally broken when Simona Mohamsson, the leader of the Liberals and minister for education and integration, announced that her party would allow SD to participate in a future government.<\/p>\n

Afterwards, on live television, Akesson offered a handshake. Mohamsson embraced him, a moment that sent political shockwaves across Sweden, in part because of who the politicians were and what they represented.<\/p>\n

Simona Mohamsson, born in Germany to a Palestinian father and mother from Lebanon, moved to Sweden when she was eight and was known for her antiracist activism and social liberalism. Earlier in her career, she campaigned against the far right and opposed SD. As recently as October, in an opinion piece, she said she does not want SD in government as they \u201cdo not behave\u201d.<\/p>\n

Even after her public announcement, at an internal party meeting, she conceded that SD were not her first choice: \u201cThey have many members who do not see me as Swedish,\u201d she is reported to have said, according to Sweden\u2019s public broadcaster.<\/p>\n

\"SimonaSweden\u2019s Minister for Education and Integration, Simona Mohamsson and Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson [File:Tom Little\/Reuters]Normalisation of far-right ideology<\/p>\n

Since the Tido Agreement, SD have become embedded in government decision-making, functioning as part of the governing apparatus and as a \u201cshadow government\u201d, al-Dewany explained.<\/p>\n

Its influence is particularly visible in criminal justice, where it has backed tougher sentencing and expanded incarceration. It has pushed to lower the age of criminal responsibility to 13, though after failing to secure enough parliamentary support, the government settled on 14, still a significant drop from the previous threshold of 15.<\/p>\n

SD\u2019s makeover has also seen other right-wing parties embrace the party and echo much of its rhetoric.<\/p>\n

Finnsio, the researcher, said that in particular the Moderates and KD have adopted \u201cthe political meta-narrative that migration \u2013 and migrants, especially those who \u2018fail to integrate\u2019 \u2013 is at the heart of virtually every social and economic problem in Sweden\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThus we get Moderate political messaging cheerfully boasting about having brought levels of so-called \u2018asylum immigration\u2019 to record lows \u2013 a kind of rhetoric that was unthinkable in Swedish politics before the success of the SD\u201d, he said.<\/p>\n

The Moderates have for years been linking the issue of crime \u2013 their top priority in government \u2013 to migration, and KD have adopted the theme that Sweden\u2019s social problems are in large part due to a failure of the majority to forcefully assert \u201cSwedish and Christian values\u201d supposedly challenged by migration, he explained.<\/p>\n

Al-Dewany said that as mainstream parties normalise SD, they also normalise its policies, imperilling people with foreign backgrounds. There has also been increased bullying of schoolchildren and a rise in anti-Muslim sentiment, she added.<\/p>\n

Assimilation not integration<\/p>\n

Laced in right-wing rhetoric around immigration is the subject of integration \u2013 but Tanvir Mansur, a Swedish political journalist and commentator, argues that what is actually meant by the term is assimilation.<\/p>\n

Mansur, who also creates content about loneliness and social belonging in Sweden, illustrates the point through the workplace.<\/p>\n

A person of colour, he said, often finds themselves as the only one \u2013 or one of very few \u2013 without the same cultural references as their colleagues.<\/p>\n

Conversations about summer houses and ski trips over fikas can leave them feeling like outsiders. And to truly fit in, the pressure is clear: \u201cYou would have to change the way you speak, to speak in a more white-sounding voice \u2013 and then you would have to learn these references,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He views Mohamsson\u2019s embrace of SD as an example of this \u2013 an \u201covercompensation\u201d to prove how Swedish she is, a \u201cnationalist mask, just like we would put on a Swedish mask in the workplace\u201d.<\/p>\n

It is a desire that goes back further in her family than politics. When they moved from Hamburg to Sweden, her father, a Palestinian citizen of Israel, changed the family name from Mohammed to Mohamsson.<\/p>\n

Al-Dewany said some of the policies pushed by the right-wing government, such as recent deportations of young people \u2013 some of whom arrived as children and have spent most of their lives in the country \u2013 show that they are directly targeting people who are \u201cnot ethnic Swedes\u201d.<\/p>\n

Mansur argues that the Sweden Democrats are not the origin of Swedish racism, but a symptom of something much older.<\/p>\n

Sweden, he points out, was involved in the transatlantic slave trade and was home to the State Institute for Racial Biology, which operated from 1922 to 1959 and used craniometry \u2013 the measuring of skulls and physical features \u2013 to classify people by race and legitimise eugenics.<\/p>\n

After World War II, he says, anything to do with race was quietly swept aside, and a new national myth took its place, one that ignored the historical treatment of the Sami, the Roma, and Black Swedes alike.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had this self-image of Sweden as a humanitarian superpower,\u201d he said, \u201cwhen that hasn\u2019t really been the truth.\u201d<\/p>\n

Upcoming elections<\/p>\n

Al-Dewany believes that even voters with right-wing sympathies may feel the current government has overreached with some of its harsher immigration policies.<\/p>\n

The deportations of young people in particular have provoked a public backlash, and polls now suggest the left-wing opposition bloc is on course to win September\u2019s election, which would end SD\u2019s formal grip on power.<\/p>\n

But for Mansur, the deeper question is not about one party or one election. He points to Nooshi Dadgostar, the leader of the Left Party, who is of Iranian origin. \u201cI\u2019ve never heard her talk about being Iranian, or Persian culture, or her language, or anything,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s kind of today\u2019s Swedish culture \u2013 trying not to stand out, trying to be as Swedish as possible,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou should be able to be yourself, no matter who you are \u2013 whatever your cultural background or faith,\u201d he added. \u201cThat\u2019s not what it should be like, being a citizen or someone who lives in Sweden.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There is an expression in Swedish, \u201cto be let into the warmth\u201d \u2013 meaning to be welcomed into…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":112504,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[83],"tags":[71,5403,38,1158,131,132,56536],"class_list":["post-112503","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-stockholm","tag-europe","tag-features","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-stockholm","tag-sweden","tag-the-far-right"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@dk\/116779376213460164","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112503","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=112503"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112503\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/112504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}