Protesters say no to racism

Thousands of people gathered in central Stockholm on Monday evening shouting “No to racism!” after a far right party won 20 seats in parliament in the national elections.

“We are a nation in shock”, Osman Sherifay of the Centre Against Racism told Vita Europe yesterday. “People are frightened, the parliament is in chaos. No one wants these racists to rule our country”.

With 5.7 per cent of votes, the far-right Swedish Democratic party will take only 20 of the Riksdag’s 349 seats. But for a nation that was once the Mecca of European progressivists, a bastion of liberalism, tolerance and egalitarianism these elections mark a turning point. It is the first time that the small, nationalist, far-right party wins seats in parliament and, if the prime minister Fredrik Reinfelt, who led a centre-right alliance of four parties, wins, as he has claimed, he will be the first Swedish centre-right leader to serve two consecutive terms since World War II.

Immigration is on the agenda

“The strong advance for the Swedish Democrats is very frightening, especially since they have chosen to focus so heavily on Muslims as the main threat to Sweden”, Omar Mustafa, the spokesperson for Sweden’s Islamic Association told the Associated French Press. Indeed, the Swedish far right makes no secret about its favourite theme: immigration and its alleged links to criminality. Their campaign video, which was banned on TV but available on YouTube, shows a white, elderly woman clinging on to her pension cheque as she races against a crowd of marching, burqa-clad women with prams. The leader of the Swedish Democrats, Jimmie Akesson is young, slick and tough talking. He has campaigned for a 90 per cent reduction in immigration, describing the growth in the Muslim population as the greatest foreign threat to the country.

With an immigrant population of around 14 per cent, Sweden is just above the northern European average. It is estimated that 250 thousand of Sweden’s 9.4 million inhabitants are Muslim.

Uncertain future

What the final outcome of the elections, which will be announced on October 4, will be is still unclear. According to preliminary results, Reinfelt’s coalition is 3 seats short of the 175 needed for parliamentary majority. The once-powerful Social Democrats, who have governed Sweden for 65 of the past 78 years, will no doubt be the biggest losers in these elections. Despite having joined forces with the Green and Communist parties, forming a Green-Red alliance that was thought would unite the left and defeat the centre-right, they will only have 157 seats in parliament.

Reinfelt has ruled out working with the Swedish Democrats, saying he did not want his party to be dependent upon them. He instead called on other parties to support him, suggesting that Sweden may be headed for a minority government.