In stark contrast to the rest of Europe, the Swedish election results show that the rising trajectory of the racist Sweden Democrat has been broken and that the “red-green” parties are making progress.
The biggest winner of the election was the Left Party, which not only doubled its seats in the European Parliament from one to two, but also recorded the biggest percentage increase since the last election. With 95% of the votes counted, the Left Party looks set to win 11% of the vote, an increase of 4.2% since the 2019 European elections. The question is, what should the Left Party do with its voter support? Should they prioritize the struggles from below or negotiations with the other parties? The obvious choice should be a fight for a real left-wing policy.
The second electoral victory was for the Green Party, which with 13.8% overtook the Sweden Democrats as the third largest party after the Social Democrats‘ 24.8% and the Conservatives’ 17.6%, an increase of 2.3%. Green Youth celebrated the victory by bathing in the Sergel Fountain in central Stockholm. Green Youth’s Rebecka Forsberg told Expressen that ‘We have made a big splash in this election. It is somehow proof that the path that the bourgeoisie has taken in co-operation with the “browns” [Sweden Democrats] here in Sweden has not been rewarded. They have slaughtered climate policy, they have set people against people. And now we see that Swedish voters obviously want a different path, a green path."
The Social Democrats became the largest party with 24.9% of the vote, an increase of 1.4% compared to 2019. This is the first time ever that the Social Democrats have gained in an EU election. Overall, the “opposition” parties of Social Democracy, Left Party, Green and the Center Party won 57% of the vote, compared to 41% for the three right-wing government parties (Moderates, Christian Democrat and Liberals) and the Sweden Democrats, which is formally outside the government but sets the tone as a supporting party.
Racist Sweden Democrats Lose Ground
The election result was historic in several ways. For the first time ever, the Sweden Democrats lost ground in an election. SD became the fourth largest party, with a preliminary 13% of the vote, a decrease of 2.2%. Their election campaign has consisted of two parallel tracks:
First, under the slogan ‘My Europe builds walls’, the SD campaigned for a tougher migration policy that keeps out “Africa, the Middle East, the screaming and shouting, gang wars, humiliation robberies, rapes, Islamisation and all other misery”. Society’s problems are blamed on non-European immigration and “immigration-crazed socialists”.
On the other hand, SD has tried to re-establish its role as an underdog, despite its co-operation with the government, by accusing the media, and in particular TV channel 4, of a smear “influence campaign”. It is a clear parallel to historical fascist attempts to discredit the media’s scrutiny.
SD’s party leader, Jimmie Åkesson, had surely prepared a victory speech, but had to settle for a defeat speech in which he complained that SD had been forced to talk “about completely different things” than its programme.
Anti-racists of all kinds, from media reporters to trade union activists, are delighted that the SD bubble has burst. Although much of this is due to the fact that people who voted for SD in 2022 did not vote this time (turnout fell from 55.3% to 50.7%), an important trend has been broken. Another important effect is that the right-wing wave among young people has broken. In the 22 to 30 age group, the SD came in fifth place at just 10%, after the Left Party, according to the exit poll on public service television. The anti-racist movement and the movement in support of Palestine now need to build on this opening.
According to this exit poll, peace in Europe was the most important issue for 67 per cent of voters, followed by democracy (60 per cent), the climate (53 per cent), law enforcement (48 per cent) and the environment (47 per cent). The election issue ‘refugees/immigration’ did not even make the top ten. Among first-time voters, the Moderates was the largest party, but Social Democracy had the largest increase from 11 per cent in 2019 to 20 per cent this year, and the Sweden Democrats from 9 per cent in 2019 to 15 per cent this year.
The Christian Democrats ended up with 5.7% of the vote, a decrease of 2.9% since the 2019 European elections. The Christian Democrats lost one of their two seats in the European Parliament. However, “We are reaping an election victory”, said party leader Ebba Busch in her acceptance speech, particularly marked by attacks on Muslims.
Despite the opposition parties’ weaknesses — they have moved to the right by supporting the roll-out of billions for the military and they are implementing cuts in municipalities and regions — a red-green election victory is an expression of hope for a different course to the blue-brown government. There is resistance to racism, militarisation, environmental destruction and the pursuit of profit. Now this resistance must be expressed even more widely in schools, workplaces and on the streets.
