It is an electric shock because Sweden, 10 million inhabitants, is a land of moderation, dominated for a long time by the center right and especially the center left, the social democrats, embodied today by the current Prime Minister, Magdalena Andersson. But the far right is now the second party in the country with more than 20% of the vote, in a position to come to power after the vote on Sunday, September 11.
The Democrats of Sweden (the official name of this far-right party) still have two obstacles in their way. The first is the uncertainty that weighs on the final results. After the counting of 95% of the ballots, the gap remains very small between the two blocs, left-ecologist on one side, right-extreme right on the other; approximately 60,000 votes, less than a point difference, in other words, out of 350 deputies, a single seat difference according to Swedish media projections. There will be no final result before Wednesday 14, or even Thursday 15 September. The second obstacle is to validate an agreement with the classic right parties. It is in preparation, but it will not be easy.
The architect of this electoral success is a 43-year-old man: Jimmie Akesson. On Sunday night, he did not hide his satisfaction when commenting on the first results. “It was 12 years ago, we were doing 5%, now it’s 20.7%, it’s fantastic, I think it smells damn good”, enthused Jimie Akesson in front of his supporters. The secret of this man with a very classic look, glasses and carefully trimmed beard, is to have smoothed, demonized his party. He changed the logo: a friendly blue and yellow anemone instead of the traditional torch.
He also cleaned up the ranks, trying to exclude neo-Nazis and those nostalgic for the Third Reich, the original founders of the party. If we are to believe the Swedish media, there are still a number of them. Jimmie Akesson has also abandoned ideas of leaving the European Union and moderated his remarks on immigration. A few years ago he called Muslims “greatest threat since World War II”. This time, he campaigned on the two issues that concern Swedes: insecurity (there is a lot of settling of accounts between gangs) and of course soaring energy costs.
The event is also that the classic right parties agree to discuss with him. This is the end of the traditional “republican cord” around the extreme right in Sweden. The leader of the main conservative, Ulf Kristersson, is visibly tired of being beaten by the social democrats. He therefore opened the door to the far right and himself led a very right-wing campaign, on insecurity as well as on the economy. For example, he wants to lower social benefits. That said, the hitch promises to be complicated, because Kristersson will also have to form an alliance with the centre-right Liberals, fiercely opposed to the far right. In addition, the European Union will no doubt show some concern, especially as Sweden takes over the rotating presidency of the EU at the end of this year.