Anti-immigration party set for election gains in Sweden

STOCKHOLM: Swedes voted on Sunday in an election dominated by fears over asylum seekers and welfare, with the anti-immigration

Sweden Democrats

vying to become the biggest party in a country long seen as a bastion of liberal values.



Far-right parties have made spectacular gains throughout Europe in recent years after a refugee crisis sparked by civil war in

Syria

and conflicts in Afghanistan and parts of Africa.

In Sweden, the influx of 163,000 asylum seekers in 2015 has polarised voters, fracturing the political consensus and could give the Sweden Democrats, a party with roots in the white supremacist fringe, a veto over who forms the next government.

"Traditional parties have failed to respond to the sense of discontent that exists," said Magnus Blomgren, a social scientist at Umea University. "This election is a referendum about our welfare," PM Stefan Lofven said. "It's also ... about a decent

democracy

... and not letting the Sweden Democrats, an extremist party, a racist party, get any influence in the government."

The latest opinion poll conducted by pollster Novus for public broadcaster SVT suggested on Friday that Lofven's ruling Social Democrats would lose a substantial number of seats, but emerge with about one-fourth of the vote - the most support predicted for any party. If realised, it would be a historical low for the traditional leftwing party.

The Sweden Democrats, who want the country to leave the European Union and put a freeze on immigration, have about 17%, up from the 13% they scored in the 2014 vote, opinion polls suggest.


"... I have said somewhere between 20 and 30% is a reasonable election result for us and I think it is possible," Sweden Democrats leader Jimmie Akesson said. Some online surveys give them as much as 25%, a result that would be likely to make them the biggest party, dethroning the Social Democrats for the first time in a century.


"It would send a 'go to hell message to me and my kind," said Stefan Jovanovic, 26, who has roots in Serbia. "Their whole political message is about one thing only, and that is... immigration." AGENCIES