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In a year, there will be elections to the national parliament in Sweden. For the first time, a right-wing nationalist party, the Sweden Democrats, will enter an election campaign to defend what they have achieved during a term of office in which they have been able to help govern.
In the last election to parliament, in 2022, the Sweden Democrats advanced by three percentage points, becoming Sweden’s second largest party after the Social Democrats and carrying the political right to power.
After the election, an agreement was reached between the Sweden Democrats and three other center/right parties on a common policy that established major reforms around migration, crime prevention and energy policy. The Sweden Democrats did not take a seat in the government, but it was largely their policy that the Swedish government would now implement.
And now that policy must be defended.
In a year, there will be elections to the national parliament in Sweden. For the first time, a right-wing nationalist party, the Sweden Democrats, will enter an election campaign to defend what they have achieved during a term of office in which they have been able to help govern. In the last election, in 2022, the Sweden Democrats advanced by three percentage points, becoming Sweden’s second largest party after the Social Democrats and carrying the political right to power.
After the election, an agreement was reached between the Sweden Democrats and three other center/right parties on a common policy that established major reforms around migration, crime prevention and energy policy. The Sweden Democrats did not take a seat in the government, but it was largely their policy that the Swedish government would now implement.
And now that policy must be defended.
A third policy area that has been at the center of the government’s and the Sweden Democrats’ work during the mandate period has been energy production. Sweden previously had a very efficient and reliable energy supply with hydroelectric power in the large rivers and a properly developed nuclear power plant. With a historically unique population increase, energy needs have increased at the same time as politicians have shut down six of the previously twelve operating nuclear power reactors. At least four of these reactors were shut down prematurely, before they were completely worn out, due to a political desire to make nuclear power a parenthesis in the Swedish energy supply. Now the new government has laid the foundation for new reactors to be built. But no reactor will be completed before 2035, so it is difficult for the government parties and the Sweden Democrats to point to concrete results.
Even many Swedes who did not vote for any of the right-wing parties understand that these reforms were necessary. And the largest opposition party has not sought conflict on these issues. Instead, they want to talk about the economy.
So now, for the first time, the Sweden Democrats will enter an election campaign where they have to defend what they have done instead of complaining about what other parties have not done or what they have done wrong. This will be something completely new. The problem will be explaining to their impatient voters that the party has not governed itself. That they have had to compromise. That changes take time. That more patience is required. That they do what they can to push the country in the right direction, but that the parties they collaborate with sometimes resist and think that the Sweden Democrats are pushing too hard.
Because the sympathizers are impatient. They have waited 20 years for their party to be allowed to govern Sweden. Now it will be the role of party leader Jimmie Åkesson to explain that the party has been involved in turning around developments in Sweden, but that more time and more votes are needed for the job to be completed.