In Swedish, there is an expression: “to be let into the warmth” – meaning to be welcomed into the fold. In a country shaped by long, dark winters, the image speaks for itself. A decade ago, the Sweden Democrats (SD), a far-right anti-immigration party with roots in Sweden’s neo-Nazi movement, were firmly shut out in the cold.
But after the 2018 general election, a political deadlock prompted right-wing parties to rethink their alliances – and their principles. Today, SD is Sweden’s second-largest party, providing the parliamentary support that keeps the current government in power. It is a party once shunned by every major political force, now far into the warmth.
SD was founded in the 1980s by Nazi sympathisers and born out of the far-right, skinhead movement “Keep Sweden Swedish”. Its first auditor, Gustaf Ekstrom, was a veteran of the armed combat branch of the SS, a key organisation of Nazi Germany. After the 1990s, SD attempted to “clean up their act”, adopting the idea of “open Swedishness” in 2003 and rebranding as a “conservative” party between 2014 and 2020.
In September 2010, SD crossed the 4 percent threshold and entered parliament for the first time, winning 20 seats. The 2015 refugee crisis handed SD the moment they had been waiting for: an estimated 163,000 asylum seekers arrived in Sweden – the highest annual figure in the country’s history. By the 2018 election, SD had capitalised, winning 17.5 percent of the vote and 62 seats – making them the third largest party.
Between 2018 and 2022, one party after another changed its stance towards SD. This began with the Christian Democrats in July 2019 when its leader, Ebba Busch, met SD leader Jimmie Akesson for a face-to-face meal, a moment which became known as “the meatball lunch”. The Moderate Party followed, with its head Ulf Kristersson – now Sweden’s prime minister – opting for a traditional Swedish fika with Akesson.
In October 2022, four right-wing party leaders signed a landmark 62-page contract – known as the Tido Agreement – establishing Sweden’s current coalition government and enacting major policy shifts on crime and immigration. Then, in May 2026, the final boundary was broken when Simona Mohamsson, the leader of the Liberals, announced that her party would allow SD to participate in a future government.
Mohamsson, born in Germany to a Palestinian father and mother from Lebanon, was known for her antiracist activism and social liberalism. Her embrace of SD sent political shockwaves across Sweden. Since the Tido Agreement, SD have become embedded in government decision-making, functioning as a “shadow government”. Its influence is particularly visible in criminal justice, where it has backed tougher sentencing and lowered the age of criminal responsibility to 14.
Researchers argue that mainstream parties have adopted SD’s narrative that migration is at the heart of virtually every social and economic problem. This has led to increased bullying of schoolchildren and a rise in anti-Muslim sentiment. Tanvir Mansur, a Swedish political journalist, argues that SD is not the origin of Swedish racism but a symptom of something much older: Sweden was involved in the transatlantic slave trade and housed the State Institute for Racial Biology from 1922 to 1959.
Polls now suggest the left-wing opposition bloc is on course to win September’s election, which would end SD’s formal grip on power. But for Mansur, the deeper question is not about one party or one election. “You should be able to be yourself, no matter who you are – whatever your cultural background or faith,” he said. “That’s not what it should be like, being a citizen or someone who lives in Sweden.”
Source: www.aljazeera.com