In Britain we may have election fever but Europe is going to the polls too — with the far right predicted to do well across the continent in elections to the European Parliament from June 6-9.

With our sister papers Junge Welt of Germany and Arbejderen of Denmark, we compiled a series of articles looking at the nature of the far-right threat across different European countries, of which this is the second. We would like to thank Junge Welt for organising the series and translation.

THE nationalist, xenophobic far right in Sweden is primarily represented by Sverigedemokraterna (Sweden Democrats, SD). The SD rose to the position as the second-largest party in Sweden in the 2022 general election, collecting 20.5 per cent of the vote. On the extreme right, there is also the breakaway group Alternativ for Sverige (Alternative for Sweden, AfS), formed in 2017 former members of the SD. AfS managed to get only 0.26 per cent of the votes in the 2022 election.
 
In contrast to the majority of the right-wing populist and xenophobic parties in Europe, the Sweden Democrats have their roots in open Nazism. Several well-known fascists were among the initiators when the party was formed in 1988. The party’s first chairman Anders Klarstrom had his roots in Nordiska Rikspartiet (NRP), a party openly embracing the Nazi ideology. Some of the initiators of the SD had their political background in the uniformed skinhead movement Bevara Sverige Svenskt (Keep Sweden Swedish).
 
In the mid-1990s, SD began a process of distancing itself from its fascist heritage. However, this had only somewhat mixed success. Members who publicly express Nazi sympathies will usually get thrown out. But in the deep base of the party, the Nazi sympathies are common, often shown by party members’ interactions on social media.

Officially, SD today defines itself as a “social-conservative party on a nationalist foundation.” This is a smokescreen: what really characterises the party is right-wing populist xenophobia with strong elements of racism and Islamophobia.
 
The very essence of SD’s policy is the belief that the mass immigration of people from primarily Muslim countries has degenerated Sweden and the Swedish nation. Sweden, the party argues, can only be reborn through the repatriation of foreign elements.