Sweden has a very dark side despite being part of “socialist Scandinavia”. They have had quite an influential fascist group and sympathisers during World War 2, which is partly responsible for Sweden not being invaded by Nazis. But overtime that influence diminished. Sweden Democrats, the current ruling party, has neo-Nazi roots and was openly racist. But it was in the 1980s that they reinvented themselves and cut loose brazenly bigoted members, while still being adjacent to the far-right anti-immigration beliefs. They bide their time and manicured their image and refined their flavour to be palatable for the mainstream. Then slowly and surely, they have gained enough parliamentary seats to be influential and eventually come into power.
If Europe does not learn from Sweden, then the entire continent will be swallowed again by fascism. Globalisation has been mismanaged. You can keep calling someone racist or bigots; but jobs have been outsourced and locals now live in rust belts without future prospects. Crime rates have been up because of underfunding public services. There is housing crisis because building social housing programme stopped and locals feel furious that refugees and immigrants get accommodations, instead of them. These conditions make fertilisers for the far-right to come into power.
Calling SD the current ruling part is very misleading. While they are quite big and are in the government, they don’t rule alone.
They are “allies” with other parties to make up a majority.
The prime minister for example is not from SD.
Also Sweden isn’t what most people call socialist, it’s social democratic. There is a very big difference between what most consider to be socialism and social democracy.
Sweden has a very dark side despite being part of “socialist Scandinavia”. They have had quite an influential fascist group and sympathisers during World War 2, which is partly responsible for Sweden not being invaded by Nazis. But overtime that influence diminished. Sweden Democrats, the current ruling party, has neo-Nazi roots and was openly racist. But it was in the 1980s that they reinvented themselves and cut loose brazenly bigoted members, while still being adjacent to the far-right anti-immigration beliefs. They bide their time and manicured their image and refined their flavour to be palatable for the mainstream. Then slowly and surely, they have gained enough parliamentary seats to be influential and eventually come into power.
If Europe does not learn from Sweden, then the entire continent will be swallowed again by fascism. Globalisation has been mismanaged. You can keep calling someone racist or bigots; but jobs have been outsourced and locals now live in rust belts without future prospects. Crime rates have been up because of underfunding public services. There is housing crisis because building social housing programme stopped and locals feel furious that refugees and immigrants get accommodations, instead of them. These conditions make fertilisers for the far-right to come into power.
Calling SD the current ruling part is very misleading. While they are quite big and are in the government, they don’t rule alone.
They are “allies” with other parties to make up a majority.
The prime minister for example is not from SD.
Also Sweden isn’t what most people call socialist, it’s social democratic. There is a very big difference between what most consider to be socialism and social democracy.