Swedish elections | The election victory of the Sweden Democrats will not bring government seats, the expert believes – “They will not take the risk of the change of power being tarnished”

Nationalist Party the election result of the Sweden Democrats was one of the big news of Sunday’s elections in Sweden.

The very tight election result is expected to be known only on Wednesday, when, for example, foreign votes are included in the calculation.

On Monday, when 94 percent of the votes had been counted, the Sweden Democrats seemed to get 20.6 percent of the votes, which means it was increasing its share of the vote by about three percentage points.

At the same time, the party was growing to become the second largest party in Sweden and the largest party in the right-wing bloc, passing the moderate coalition, which can be considered a significant change.

What is the reason for the increase in support and what is the result?

“This is their biggest victory so far and this is the fourth consecutive election in which we are talking about the Sweden Democrats the day after the election,” says a doctor of political science who works at the Swedish think tank Timbro Andreas Johansson Heinö.

Johansson Heinö, who is familiar with the Sweden Democrats, states that the support is now greater than what was considered possible just a few years ago.

In neighboring countries, the parties of the same party group have used to be bigger than the Sweden Democrats, but now the party’s election results seem to be close to, for example, the figures of the best elections of the Danish People’s Party.

Despite this, Johansson Heinö does not believe that if the right wins, the Sweden Democrats will get government seats as a result of the elections.

Party secretary Richard Jomshof indicated on Monday morning in an interview with SVT that even the prime minister’s position should now be in the discussions.

“It is clear that we need to be able to discuss ministerial positions. It is clear that we must be able to discuss the position of the prime minister, the position of the speaker and leadership positions in the various parliamentary committees,” he said.

However, Jomshof emphasized at the same time that it is important for the party that changes take place in matters of importance to it.

Prime Minister the seat is not possible for the party, because the chairman of the party Jimmie Åkesson should not gather a majority behind him.

For a long time in Sweden it was also considered clear that the party could not be in the government. However, the seat of the second largest party would give the party a lot of bargaining power.

The fact that the Sweden Democrats would not necessarily get any seats in the government is due to the opposition of the party belonging to the right-wing bloc, the Liberals. The party has been strict about not wanting Sweden Democrats in the government. And if the liberals are not brought on board, the entire government alternative will fall to the ground.

“They will not take the risk of spoiling the change of power. They will accept the support party position now. On the other hand, I believe that it is only a matter of time before the rise of the government is relevant for them,” says Johansson Heinö.

He refers to opinion polls published before the elections, in which supporters of the moderate coalition and the Christian Democrats, which belong to the right-wing bloc, would like the Sweden Democrats to join the government. This is why there is pressure in that direction.

Also professor of political science at the University of Gothenburg Michael Gilliam and docent of political science at Lund University Anders Sannerstedt assessed to the news agency TT that the Sweden Democrats would not enter the government.

Locals the media reported on Monday that the moderate coalition met, Sweden Democrats, Liberals and Christian Democrats.

of Dagens Nyheter according to the moderate coalition would primarily like a government with only Christian Democrats.

In any case, the election result of the Sweden Democrats means that the party will want something in return for supporting the moderate coalition as the prime minister’s party.

Johansson Heinö estimates that it can be, for example, influential civil servant positions.

Why the swedish democrats then increased their support?

Johansson Heinö states that the party has grown at a suitable pace to be able to both keep its old supporters and attract new ones. The party apparatus is very well functioning throughout the country. And party leader Åkesson is very popular.

In addition, the elections were held in the Sweden Democrats’ playing field. One of the most important themes of the election was gang crime, which the Sweden Democrats have been talking about for a long time and to which they are associated.

The moderate coalition has suffered from the fact that the party has appeared as a copy in this regard, Johansson Heinö believes.

The coalition seemed to have lost a lot of votes to the Sweden Democrats, as did the Social Democrats.

Change in the way Sweden’s other parties and also the citizens relate to the Sweden Democrats, it is now felt.

For a long time, despite the growth of the Sweden Democrats, the other parties did not even agree to have a conversation with it because of its far-right background.

Even in 2017, when the chairman of the moderate coalition Anna Kinberg-Batra opened the door to a discussion with the Sweden Democrats, it was received very badly. The party’s support started with rap, and Kinberg-Batra finally had to leave.

Now the coalition has accepted the Sweden Democrats as its partner. The Swedish Democrats, on the other hand, have been trying for a long time to show that the party is weeding out extremists from its ranks.

This too in the year’s elections, the background of the Sweden Democrats still reared its head, for example, when the research institute Acta Publica published the reportaccording to which up to 214 candidates of the Sweden Democrats have connections to Nazism or racism.

Leftist media ETC, on the other hand, published the storyaccording to which the party has a large army of internet trolls who take orders directly from the party leadership.

In addition the Social Democrats highlighted the Sweden Democrats’ connections to Russia.

However, these types of issues do not seem to shake the Sweden Democrats, says Johansson Heinö.

“Possibly, it is rather the case that it might hurt the parties that cooperate with the Sweden Democrats.”