In Sweden, many breathe sigh of relief as far right suffers election losses

Stockholm, Sweden – Jimmie Akesson, leader of the far-right Sweden Democrats (SD), cast his early ballot in Rinkeby, a Stockholm suburb where most residents have a minority background.

“It was a political stunt,” said 18-year-old Sumeyah Ali. “It was meant to provoke.”

After voting, Akesson told reporters Rinkeby “doesn’t look like Sweden … Sweden shouldn’t look like this, I think.”

His provocative comments were designed to fuel the party’s anti-immigration and Islamophobic rhetoric, said Ali at an office space for Jarva i samverkan, a Stockholm-based network of local nonprofits that coordinates free activities and youth programmes.

Although the overall general election is too close to call , one result is clear: the SD suffered its first-ever decline in a parliamentary election, falling three percentage points to 17.5 percent and slipping from second to third place behind the Moderate Party.

The party, which has neo-Nazi roots, has repeatedly targeted Islam.

In 2023, Akesson called for a halt to new mosques and said Sweden should, in the longer term, begin “seizing and demolishing mosques” that spread “anti-democratic, anti-Swedish” propaganda, a proposal rejected by Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson.

Akesson has said he targets Islamism, not Muslims, but senior SD MP Richard Jomshof abandoned that distinction during the campaign.