SWEDEN

Party: Sweden Democrats (SD); Young Swedes SDU youth wing; SD-Women

Leader: Jimmie Åkesson

Type Leader: Åkesson is an author and politician who has led the SD since 2004 and, like Marine Le Pen in France, worked to soften his party’s early neo-fascist image: the right-wing populist SD was founded in 1988 by Swedish pro-Nazi and fascists groups. While Åkesson and his party have since adopted more moderate positions, prominent xenophobic members like Björn Söder defy that image, cause some critics to view the SD as hardline right, despite its official platform.     

% National Vote: The Sweden Democrats are the second-largest party in the Riksdag, or 349-member unicameral Swedish Parliament, and, as of the last national election in 2022, the largest member of the right-wing bloc. 

Position in Government:  Sweden’s Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson is leader of the Moderate Party, a minority government that relies on the SD to govern. In the last election, the SD won 62 seats, or 17.5% of the vote; the Moderates won 70 seats (19.8%) and the Social Democrats held the majority, with 100 seats (28.3%).  It is also affiliated with the Danish far-right party, Northern Freedom (Nordisk Frihet), and sits on the inter-parliamentary Nordic Council with Denmark, Finland, Iceland, and Norway, and autonomous areas Faroe Islands, Greenland, and Åland. 

Platform: Under Akesson’s leadership, the fast-growing SD began a public effort since 2005 to expel hardline members and to moderate its platform–with mixed results. It officially rejects fascism and states a “zero tolerance policy” toward “extremists,” “lawbreakers,” and “racists.” It remains nativist, populist, anti-immigrant, opposed to multiculturalism, and Euroskeptic, opposing further European integration and pushing for Sweden to have an exit strategy from the EU. While it supports Sweden’s welfare system, it opposes support for non-Swedes and permanent residents—an attack on immigrants and multiculturalism.  The SD adopts a more tolerant social policy position than other right-wing groups: it supports same-sex marriage and gay civil unions, and gender-affirming surgery, while advocating a traditional family values agenda.

That said, the SD has failed to silence prominent extremist voices like Björn Söder, the ex-SD party secretary for a decade. Söder has espoused anti-Semitic statements, as well as racist and anti-Muslim rhetoric, challenging the identity and inclusion of Jews and indigenous Sami people as real Swedes; both groups are legally recognized as two of Sweden’s five national minorities. He’s made anti-gay statements linking homosexuality to pedophilia, and anti-Green statements. 

European Parliament: In the 2024 European elections, the Sweden Democrats won 13.2% of votes, holding onto 3 of the 21 Swedish seats in Brussels. The SD is a member of the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) coalition, along with Meloni’s Brothers of Italy and Poland’s PiS.