Lily Lynch in Sidecar:
The mood at the hard-right Sweden Democrats’ (SD) election-night gala on Sunday was sombre. Earlier in the evening, party faithful had swayed to ‘Dancing Queen’ under purple and pink lights, and mimicked Trump’s signature fist pumping to ‘YMCA’. But as exit poll results started to trickle in, the atmosphere turned. The news was disappointing, if not entirely unexpected: on 17.5 per cent of the vote, the SD had for the first time lost ground in a Riksdag election. Four years ago, as supporters gathered at a waterfront hotel in Nacka to celebrate the party’s historic breakthrough on 20.5 per cent – making it the second-largest party in Sweden after the Social Democrats – exuberance reigned. Led by Jimmie Åkesson, whose modern, relaxed presentation is credited with bringing it from the far-right fringe into the mainstream, the SD seemed unstoppable. But on Sunday, the sorry sight of disco lights on an emptying dance floor seemed worlds away from that insurgent energy.
In 2022, the party’s strong finish gave it considerable bargaining power in negotiations with the traditional bourgeois parties – the Moderates, Liberals and Christian Democrats. The resulting arrangement was formalized in the Tidö Agreement: the centre-right parties formed a government, led by the Moderate Party’s Ulf Kristersson, while the SD would remain outside the cabinet but support it in parliament in return for substantial influence over policy. Åkesson later made it clear that he did not expect to remain on the outside forever, and during this year’s campaign Kristersson pledged that if the Tidö coalition prevailed, the SD would at last be awarded ministerial portfolios.
After a nail-biting vote count, the SD’s ministerial dreams were not to be. The governing right bloc lost to the centre-left opposition headed by former Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson’s Social Democrats – together with the Left Party, Greens and the Centre Party – by less than a percentage point, 48.9 per cent to 49.6. The distribution of seats was a mirror image of 2022, with 173 going to the Tidö parties and 176 to their opponents. Yet given the razor-thin margin of victory, the winner was also a loser of sorts.
More here.
Enjoying the content on 3QD? Help keep us going by donating now.