Sweden at a crossroads: after four years of far-right influence, what comes

Roundtable co-organised by the Centre for European Studies and Comparative Politics & the School of public Affairs, Sciences Po.

In 2022, the far-right Sweden Democrats, long a pariah in Swedish politics because of their extremist roots and positions, joined a right-wing coalition for the first time, paving the way for the right-wing Moderate party to return to office after eight years of Social Democratic governance. Although the Sweden Democrats did not formally join the government, they secured extensive policy influence and access to the government chancellery through the Tidö Agreement, a wide-ranging platform that granted them substantial sway over issues such as migration, citizenship, culture and crime. The Tidö coalition marked the (provisional?) end of a turbulent period in Swedish politics, during which the Social Democratic governments of Stefan Löfven and Magdalena Andersson repeatedly failed to secure parliamentary majorities for their budgets, a struggle that culminated in the historic fall of the Löfven cabinet in 2021.

Since becoming Sweden's second-largest party in 2022, the Sweden Democrats have remained at the centre of intense debate over their influence on policy and the country's overall direction. Major controversies have erupted around reforms such as increased "remigration grants" for immigrants willing to return to their countries of origin, a lowered age of criminal responsibility, retroactive changes to citizenship law, and the so-called "Reporting Act ». Meanwhile, the Social Democrats have faced criticism for allegedly "triangulating" far-right positions, a strategy said to be partly inspired by their Danish counterparts.

Yet, the elections on 13 September produced a divided political picture. The four parties seeking to replace the outgoing right-wing government secured a narrow parliamentary majority, even as the Social Democrats recorded their worst result since the introduction of universal suffrage. The Left Party and the Greens, meanwhile, gained support. Just over a decade after the so-called “refugee crisis” of 2015, Sweden has moved from one of Europe’s most generous migration policies towards an increasingly restrictive approach supported across much of the political spectrum. Yet the anti-immigration Sweden Democrats lost votes for the first time and fell from second to third place, although many positions they once represented almost alone have entered the mainstream. The gains made by parties to the left of the Social Democrats further complicate the idea of a general shift to the right.

Speakers:

• Emma Sofia Dedorson : Correspondent in France for the Swedish newspaper Dagens ETC.
• Yohann Aucante : Director of the “Centre des savoirs sur le politique”, EHESS.
• Ov Cristian Norocel : Senior Lecturer, Department of Sociology, Division of Gender Studies, Lund University.

Moderation:

Saga Oskarson Kindstrand and Marius Perrin, PhD students at Sciences Po’s Centre for European and Comparative Politics (CEE).