In the Stockholm suburb of Rinkeby, where most residents have a minority background, Jimmie Akesson, leader of the far-right Sweden Democrats (SD), cast his early ballot. The visit was widely seen as a political stunt.
“It was a political stunt, meant to provoke,” said 18-year-old Sumeyah Ali. After voting, Akesson told reporters that Rinkeby “doesn’t look like Sweden… Sweden shouldn’t look like this.” His provocative comments were designed to fuel the party’s anti-immigration and Islamophobic rhetoric.
But his apparent bid failed. 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.
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.
During the campaign, the SD proposed banning the hijab and intimidated people with posters reading “We make Sweden, Sweden again”. However, Rinkeby residents refused to take the bait. “It was chaos then, but people know now we can’t be provoked, as that is what they [the far right] want,” said Sara, a 25-year-old business owner.
Preliminary results give Sweden’s centre-left opposition bloc a razor-thin lead of 176 seats to 173 over Kristersson’s right-wing alliance. But the numbers settled little; some votes are still to be counted, and the final results are not expected for several days. Analysts warned of a deadlock that could drag on for weeks and possibly end in a snap election.
Voter turnout largely rose in multicultural areas like Rinkeby, but fell across the country overall. In Rinkeby central, preliminary results show more than half of voters backed the Left Party, which rose from 17 percent of the vote in 2022 to 21 percent this year. One stop away in Tensta, 54.35 percent of voters backed the Left Party, with only six votes for SD.
Ali believes the SD election campaign was driven by an “Americanisation” of Swedish politics, where politicians try to emulate United States President Donald Trump’s divisive politics. In Stockholm’s central station, SD spent about $100,000 on a weeklong summer campaign that included posters reading: “If you commit crimes, live off benefits, don’t learn Swedish or misbehave, you’re not welcome.”
Ali remains optimistic as many Swedes embrace diversity and several initiatives are working to reduce segregation. Stockholm City has launched Fokus Jarva, a project that aims to close the gap in conditions between the district and the rest of the city. Ali suggested that Akesson should look beyond Rinkeby’s beige and grey housing blocks to see its vibrant, diverse and supportive community. “In the end, that’s what makes a place, however it looks,” she said.
Source: www.aljazeera.com