Far-right Sweden Democrats poised to make gains in general election
By
Jordan Shilton
8 September 2018
The official narrative ahead of Sweden’s parliamentary elections tomorrow is that the Scandinavian country, overrun by refugees, is no longer able to fund public spending and welfare services.
Whether one follows the campaign of the far-right Sweden Democrats or the governing Social Democrats, virtually identical policies are on offer: a vicious crackdown on immigrants and refugees, hikes in military spending in the face of alleged “Russian aggression,” and the strengthening of the police and repressive state apparatus.
As with the AfD in Germany or the National Rally (formerly National Front) in France, this right-wing conspiracy involving the entire political establishment is playing directly into the hands of the Sweden Democrats while disenfranchising the majority of the population. The political elite is widely viewed with contempt. Capitalising on this social anger, the Sweden Democrats are projected to increase their share of the vote to around 20 percent on Sunday from 13 percent in 2014. Some polls even suggest that the party, which emerged out of the neo-Nazi movement in the 1980s, could win the election.
The drive to scapegoat immigrants for all of Sweden’s social problems is part of a deliberate attempt to cover up the role of the political establishment, above all its nominal left-wing, in gutting public services and the welfare state. Since the early 1990s, successive governments led by the Social Democrats and right-wing Alliance have carried out an onslaught, including slashing taxes for corporations and the rich, privatising education, healthcare, and welfare services, and cutting back on social benefits.
Although it was the Alliance government…