Swedish nationalist group surges amid protests

[Lars77]

Source: AP

Polls in Sweden show a small anti-immigration party is likely to enter Parliament for the first time in elections Sunday, despite attempts by vuvuzela-blowing protesters to disrupt the nationalist group's campaign rallies.

The Sweden Democrats are warning that lenient immigration policies are threatening the country's welfare system, and a series of recent surveys shows the party has climbed above the 4 percent threshold necessary to enter to the legislature.

That could create disarray if neither the center-right government nor the left-wing opposition wins a majority in the 349-seat assembly, because neither side wants to rely on the support of the Sweden Democrats.

In the final days of campaigning, both blocs have warned voters against bringing the party into Parliament, saying it represents xenophobic views that don't belong in a country seen as tolerant and welcoming to refugees.

Read more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5h0NkGlaOT14FW0hes2NJl1907y3QD9I93L907

---

Latest polls show they will be the third largest party in parliament.

These people are not just right-wing populists like Sarkozy, these people are nazis in suit and ties. In fact they were wearing nazi uniforms up until just a few years ago.

Personally i have never liked the idea of political advertising on TV (It is not allowed in my native Norway), but in Sweden they have now legalized it. And the Sweden Democrats made a film portraying burka-clad women pusing big strollers bullying their way past an old white lady to get to a till marked "state funds".
The advert was banned from television for being racist and populist and liberalist rightist parties across Scandinavia were outraged (but they were all careful to say that they do not support the party itself..) for this denial of the freedom of speech.

The result is that they have gotten a lot of press from the tabloids, and probably sympathy from the white, Swedish working class who is struggling to find work, especially young males.

Just a year ago, a uniformed nazi party in Hungary got 18 percent of the vote.


You might think you got it bad with the tea party, but look out..

[Dappleganger]

1. That is scary...

especially to see that happening in Sweden. Thanks for submitting this!

[dmallind]

2. Surely not - on DU I am always told Scandinavia is a liberal paradise

Full of caring and progressive souls who care only for the common good.

The truth is that there are right wing morons everywhere. Northern Europe does a better job than the US of marginalizing them at least so far of course, and long may that continue. Our fascists probably get fewer votes than they do in Europe, it's just that our right leaning major party is much closer to fascism than yours generally are. I am too naive about Swedish or Norwegian politics to comment, but I know for sure Cameron would be run out of the Republican party as a damn commie Democrat infiltrator.

[Lars77]

6. Scandinavia is turning right just as the rest of Europe

Denmark has gone right slowly for the past 15-20 years. Sweden are now following suit slowly, Norway are lagging behind Sweden mostly due to economic stability, i think.

All of Scandinavia has one thing in common. A large influx of muslim immigrants over many years, a lot of them still poorly integrated, seeking to make a community for themselves in poor subburbs. This combined with a fear of islamic extremism exploited by rightist populist politicians (using pages from US political playbooks) especially in Sweden and Denmark is moving things in the wrong direction.

Here is the difference:
In Norway, the right-wing populist party (Progess party) has largely been shunned even by the establishment conservatives as they have been very busy pretending to be a protest party (they have had lectures from tea party organizers even!). Still they almost made it last election but the center parties refused to join a coalition with them and it all fell apart.

In Denmark they (Danish peoples party) are already in power in a minority coalition with the liberal party. Once they managed to start a public debate about whether or not Islamic women in burkas would be allowed to be tram drivers in Copenhagen, arguing that the headwear limit their ability to see traffic. This went on for a while until someone found out that in the whole of Denmark there was probably only about three women who wore full burkas. And none of them wanted to be tram drivers. Thats how easy it is to get the tabloid media going.

In Sweden they have not had a populist rightist party like in Denmark and Norway, which has given space for this extreme Sweden Democrat party who are so far right that even the Islamophobic Progress and Danish Peoples parties in Norway and Sweden are distancing themselves from them.


However this does not mean that the countries are getting more conservative on other issues. But immigration and Islam is a big issue right now.

We can only hope that the polling is off and that this is some sort of anti-establishment protest.

[tama]

3. One of their candidates

got mugged and a swastika cut on his forehead. That's what hollywood entertainment a la Tarantino does to politics... ;)

[CJvR]

5. Yes.

That probably gained them a % or two...

Job well done autonome morons!

[CJvR]

4. Election at Ground Zero

Living at the Sweden Democrats Ground Zero ( where they got 22% of the local vote 4 years ago ) I can assure you that even if they become the third largest party their influence will be limited. Despite SD the city have been governed since the last election by a liberal-green minority, not a good situation but workable.

Sweden have actually been relatively spared right wing populists ( the left wing populists being more common ). After the implosion of the New Democracy there have been none, unlike Norway and Denmark where they have existed for a long time. It is a bit unfortunate that now that we seem to get a new one for ourselves that it originated, not in murky waters but outright crawled out of the abyss. The Sweden Democrats themselves are very aware of this and have held a long long "Night of the long Knives" to purge any member unable to keep their mouth shut.

The Teaparty is a bit more insidious. It is a parasite trying to take over it's host, that way it is much closer to getting hold of real political power than SD - even if SD turns out to be the third largest party.

[Lars77]

7. :)

Im glad we agree on the analysis that SD are able to rise because Sweden has been without the rightist populist parties of Norway and Denmark. :)

And i hope you are right.

[CJvR]

10. Hopefully...

... the current goverment will get a majority, the polls seems to indicate this.

Somewhat ironically the Social Democrats are the best allies the Sweden Democrats have at the moment.

[chaska]

8. I'll get slammed for this, but...

Racism exists. It has always been with us and always will be. Therefore, to embrace multiculturalism is to embrace the consequences of racism.

The ideal society would be a monoculture with a small, welcomed (and possibly temporary) minority that contributes by bringing new ideas but does not make the monoculture feel threatened. The massive influx of Mexicans into the US makes people feel threatened.

It's a good thing that Swedes are recognizing this as a problem before it gets too out of hand. I can't condemn them.

I don't hate, I only try to see the truth of the situation.

[CJvR]

9. Actually...

...I would say racism is a relatively new idea.

Tribalism is probably a better word for your intent, although racism is becoming dilluted enough to fit just about everything.

[pampango]

12. Can't agree that the consequences of racism are so powerful that multiculturalism cannot

succeed. Neither are the consequences of homophobia or sexism or xenophobia. There are issues between races, genders, ages, religions and abilities. Living is about working out those differences.

To claim that people with different skin colors can't live productively with each other is ridiculous. In the Middle Ages that was probably true since people had little experience living with people who didn't look the same. (Of course, they did a lot of things back then that we don't do anymore.) I believe we have proven that we can progress beyond the Middle Ages in many respects.

If you feel threatened by Mexicans that is your problem but not everyone shares it. I do not feel threatened by Mexicans, Blacks, women, gays, Muslims or young people. Sometimes I feel threatened by bad people but they come in all shapes and sizes. Some even look a lot like me. :) The world is full of different types of people. There is no reason that each race has to live in an area that is segregated from every other race.

Young people are more accepting of differences in race, ethnicity, and sexual orientation. Since our population is much more diverse than when I was young, they have grown up accepting diversity as natural while most of us older folks have had to learn to adapt to it as adults. The future is bright for multiculturalism. It will just be a rough patch getting over the initial adjustment that people have living with folks that don't quite look the same.

[Rage for Order]

11. America is still the most racist country in the world n/t

[proteus_lives]

13. Never been to Japan, huh?

[ClarkUSA]

16. Or Russia. nt

[MellowDem]

14. That's very naive. nt

[ClarkUSA]

15. Yeah? Is that why Barack Hussein Obama is President and Leader of the Free World?

:sarcasm:

[proteus_lives]

17. It's the just as ugly sister to American Expectionialism.

"America is the worst place ever!"

If we're not the best then we have to be the worst.

:eyes:

[Rage for Order]

18. Oops...looks like I forgot something

My first post contained just a wee bit of :sarcasm:

:)

[Odin2005]

20. Bullshit. Europe is far more racist than the US is.

They are just much better at hiding it, except when it comes to some despised group like the Roma.

We have a mixed-race president, it will be a cold day in Hell before any European country has a non-white leader.

[CJvR]

19. Remember?

Remember that SD fellow who were attacked in his appartment and supposedly had the swastica carved onto his forehead?

Well it seems there is some serious suspicions that it might have been self inflicted...

(In Swedish naturally...)
http://www.expressen.se/nyheter/val2010/1.2140768/politiker-misstanks-ljuga-om-overfall

Basicly the nature of the injury doesn't seem to match the story told to the police.

[Odin2005]

21. LOL, there seems to be a pattern, here!

[pampango]

22. "Anti-immigration party harassed as Swedes head to the polls"

http://rt.com/Politics/2010-09-19/swedish-elections-democracy-controversy.html

Sweden is heading to the polls today, with the ruling coalition expected to win most of the votes. However, so far a controversial anti-immigration party is grabbing the headlines.

Latest polls suggest the center-right bloc, headed by the Swedish Prime Minister, will win. The centre-left opposition are not that far behind, with some estimates putting them just a five percent margin away from a majority.

Still, for many observers this duel has been overshadowed by the success of the far-right Sweden Democrats party, which has seen its candidates attacked and says it has been denied freedom of speech.

[Selatius]

23. One way to divide the working class is to foster racism. The party could be a tool of the wealthy.

Many wealthy interests would have it a goal to distract the working class with social issues and prejudices so that they are not paying attention to the economic issues. I'm just speculating, of course, on whether the Sweden Democrats really are being funded by wealthy interests, but dividing a group of people by stoking prejudices is a good way to blunt the power of the working class.

It's why in the US we no longer take seriously the idea of fighting poverty. It was much easier to dehumanize the poor and paint them as nothing but welfare queens and freeloaders like Reagan did, and people voted for him twice, but the real enemy has been and will always be business oligarchs who pillage the wealth either through unfair competition or fraud like those bankers on Wall Street.

[Quantess]

24. The xenophobic party got about 6% of the vote, am I right?

To me that doesn't sound like an overwhelming victory, but as an American what do I know... It's not like they are going to dominate the government.

I know some Swedes who are upset, but is it really that big a deal? The Swedes on my Facebook are thoroughly disgusted, but I'm wondering if this is just a "tempest in a teapot".

[War Horse]

26. The real issue

The Social Democrat party preforms at a historic low but is still the biggest single party at 30,8%. The rival Moderate party clocks in at a record high 30. The rest of the parties hover from 5,5 - 7,2%. SD currently beats two of the established parties.

This means that SD is, as they hoped to be, wedged between the parties as a tie-breaker. I guess my Swedish friends are looking to Denmark right now and what's happened with the danish people's party there.

To some extent the Progress party here in Norway as well...

[CJvR]

29. Swedish parlimentary procedure...

IIRC the procedural order in the Parliment requires that a majority votes against a proposal to reject it. This means the Sweden Democrats have to join with their sworn enemies on the left to vote down the goverment.

[Blue_Tires]

39. welcome to the site!

[CJvR]

28. The problem...

The problem is that Swedish politics is locked in two blocks ( Communists, Socialdemocrats & Greens ) and ( Liberals, Agrarians, Christiandemocrats & Conservatives ) and neither of those blocks have a majority. The opposition have lost badly, the goverment have made gains but not enough to maintain it's majority, the Swedish parliment have a 4% block to keep marginal parties out. This election the Sweden Democrats managed to break this limit this election shifting the balance in the parliment.

[pampango]

31. Sounds like there is sentiment to bring the Greens into the government or just have a minority

government to avoid allowing the Sweden Democrats from having any influence in parliament.

http://www.thelocal.se/29110/20100919/

"Dr. Einar Helitz has been an environmental activist in Stockholm since 1962 and has been a Green Party representative on Stockholm city council since 2006. As to his opinion of the Sweden Democrats, he said, "I don't like them. They have very bad policies, even on environmental issues. They do not support lowering car emissions. They are not for a better environment and are only concerned about refugees from Arabic countries." Helitz concurred that he favoured a majority government for the upcoming parliament and supported the possibility of securing Green support to achieve it.

"Foreign Minister and former Prime Minister Carl Bildt said it was possible that the Greens would move closer to the government, despite the party’s protestations that the Red-Green partnership was still valid." "He also underlined that the government would not make itself reliant on the Sweden Democrats: “More than 90 percent of the members of the Riksdag reject the Sweden Democrats’ policies,” he said."

"But amid the celebrations, there is a shadow hanging over the Moderates tonight. Reinfeldt was clear: “We will not cooperate with or make ourselves dependent on the Sweden Democrats,” he said.

One of the clear alternatives to the Sweden Democrats are the Greens: “We wish to initiate talks with the Green Party,” he said in the speech. But not all Moderates and commentators believe that a formal alliance is the most likely outcome. More on that in a moment."

[CJvR]

34. IMPO

It is more likely to be a minority goverment.

The Greens are probably quite keen on being seated in a goverment, but it is deadly dangerous to the agrarian ( Center ) party who is profiling itself as the greens on the liberal side. Also the Greens while they might have some economic issues relatively simmilar to the liberal block in many other issues they are far closer to the communists. I don't see how the current goverment will be able to make concessions big enough to include the Greens.

[Quantess]

32. How interesting that Liberals and Conservatives are in the same block.

So, does that mean that the Swedish Democrats will need to align with other, more prominent parties? Or does each party get a certain percentage of representation?

[CJvR]

33. "Conservatives"

Noone wants to touch the Sweden Democrats, even with 10 foot barge poles and a full HAZMAT suits. But they will have the potential to topple goverment propositions and even the goverment if they side with the opposition. It shouldn't be able to make to much trouble since they are sworn enemies of eachother but Sweden will go from a majority goverment to a minority goverment, never a good thing.

The old Swedish conservative party ( Moderaterna ) is really more of a right wing liberal party these days.

[War Horse]

35. Not the same as the US definition of "Liberal", necessarily

A (true) "far right liberal" over here would be more like a US Libertarian, for example. On the other end of the scale it could also mean a green (environmentalist) party with an emhasis on small business, private enterprise etc.

I'd personally describe the SD as being pretty damned close to National Socialists, i.e. as far right as one can possibly get - and I really don't think I'm going Godwin on that one...

Apologies if I'm misunderstanding you here!

[Quantess]

36. Thanks for explaining.

I don't know much about Swedish politics, but it would be good for me to learn more.
Jag här svenska medborgarskap, och jag kommer att flytta till Sverige snart. :)

[Stockholm]

25. Fuck

[Quantess]

27. Just curious,

are you currently in the USA or in Sweden? I'm planning to move to Sweden soon.

[CJvR]

30. You cant...

You can't prevent idiots from making fools of themselves, we have had communists in parliment for decades - now we have nazis as well.

[Arrowhead2k1]

37. I'd take commies over nazis any day of the week.

:(

[CJvR]

38. Sort of like...

...deciding which leg to amputate.

There really isn't that much difference between commies and nazis on the major issues. Our commies crawled out of the sewers a bit earlier so they don't stink quite as badly as the SD.