Elections have been held in Sweden for their parliament. Exit polls suggest that the largest party, the Social Democrats, have lost about 6% from the last general election, as have the centre-right Moderate Party. The Sweden Democrats, the anti-immigration party which has been linked to the far-right, is on course to be the 2nd biggest party with nearly 20% of the vote, whilst the socialist Left Party and the Christian Democrats are on course to make gains as well.

 

 

There had been suggestions over the last few days and weeks that the fascists could actually be the largest party, so it could have been worse. It looks like it may take a while for a government to be formed.

From my understanding, SD's failure to become the biggest party has been due to other parties, even those on the left, adopting the anti-immigration rhetoric and policies that until recently were solely the SD's domain. It is still quite worrying that even in the supposedly lovely Sweden, 1 in 5 voters are willing to vote for a party that has had links to neo-Nazis, and doesn't bode well for any attempts to roll back populism in Europe.

Yes, extremely concerning the high vote that the SD have acquired though this election. It's quite concerning and will just add fuel to the Nazi fire that's building across the continent right now.

 

Of course as a percentage of population Sweden has taken in the largest amount of migrants and it appears that attempts to integrate them have gone somewhat poorly. That and a rise in media outlets platforming and normalising far right positions has allowed their message of hate to grow and spread.

 

The media is complicit in the re-rise of fascism across Europe and the USA and needs to take a damned good look at itself.

The (almost) final figures give each of the two main blocs a shade over 40% (with the centre-left bloc marginally ahead) and the fascists 17.6%. It is worth noting that the fascists are part of the right-wing group in the European Parliament cobbled together by Cameron when his party flounced out of the main centre-right grouping, i.e. the one including mainstream parties such as Angela Merkel’s CDU. That decision (fulfilling the only promise he made in his leadership campaign) made it much harder for him to negotiate with fellow leaders once he became PM. In other words, there was plenty of evidence to show what a dimwit he was even before he became PM.

17.6% is thankfully lower than I think we all feared. Which is good news!

 

I think that Cameron lead EU block is full of dodgy peoples but it isn’t as bad as the one UKIP leads. That’s an absolutely frightening bloc of loons

17.6% is thankfully lower than I think we all feared. Which is good news!

 

I think that Cameron lead EU block is full of dodgy peoples but it isn’t as bad as the one UKIP leads. That’s an absolutely frightening bloc of loons

But that's basically my point. Cameron made the promise to get the votes of anti-EU Tories. He clearly didn't give a moment's thought to what he would do after that. I suspect he had no idea that there were rules governing what constitutes a group (e.g. the number of countries that must be represented) or what other right-wing European parties were like. It's a bit like promising a referendum in order to win votes and then having no idea what to do if forced to deliver on that promise, let alone what to do if the referendum ended in defeat.

FAr-right groups do not prosper when everything is fine, though. THere has to be underlying issues for them to exploit in order for them to prosper.