The rise of the Far-Right in Sweden

Madeleine Johansson

In this article Swedish-born socialist Madeleine Johansson looks at the rise of the far-right in Sweden and its lessons for Ireland. Madeleine is a councillor for People Before Profit on South Dublin County Council and a member of the Red Network. Madeleine Johansson is the author of “Reform or Revolution? Sweden, Socialism and the Welfare State.” The book is available for purchase on www.rednetwork.ie.

As we’re seeing a rise in anti-refugee and anti-migrant sentiment in Ireland, it’s useful to look at other countries in Europe where the far-right has grown. As a Swedish-born socialist, I have seen the rise of the far-right in Sweden and in this article I have highlighted some lessons for socialists in Ireland.

In electoral terms, the far-right Sweden Democrats have gone from strength to strength in recent years. The openly anti-immigrant party has gone from being a marginal organisation to being the second-largest party in Sweden. 

In 2010 they were first elected to parliament with 5.7% of the vote. In the September 2022 election, they got 20.54% of the vote, coming second after the Social Democrats at 30.33%.

"In about 40 years, Sweden has gone from being one of the most equal countries in the world to the 12th most unequal according to Credit Suisse."

The backdrop to this is an economic recession in the 1990s and a programme of neoliberal privatisation and cuts to public services. In about 40 years, Sweden has gone from being one of the most equal countries in the world to the 12th most unequal according to Credit Suisse. That means Sweden is more unequal than the US, the UK, Ireland and all other European countries.  

Racism has always been used by the rich as a tool to divide workers and distract from class struggle. As neo-liberalism has run wild, and the welfare state has been brought to its knees, the ruling class needed a scapegoat. Mainstream media were more than happy to perpetuate the myth that the problems in the health service, and the cutbacks in welfare, were caused by immigrants.

In the 1990s and early 2000s major industrial centres were closing down and laying off workers at massive rates. Many of the small towns that depended on industry saw unemployment rise. In my home town of Motala, young people who didn’t want to go to university could previously have got a job at Electrolux, Luxor or other factories. With the factories closing down, youth unemployment went up. By 2011 youth unemployment reached a high of 32.9%, while total unemployment was at 13.3%.[1] In 2013 the national unemployment rate was still 8%, and by late 2022 it had only reduced slightly to 6.9%.[2]

In this climate of unemployment, de-industrialisation and the destruction of the welfare state, there was a fertile ground for racism to grow. The Social Democrats were responsible for cutbacks and privatisation during their time in government from the mid-1990s to 2003. In those circumstances, the mood can either swing to the left or to the right and in the case of Sweden, the far-right were in the perfect position to make gains. But the far-right didn’t come from nowhere.

The return of the far-right

In the 1920s and 1930s, there was a strong pro-Nazi sentiment in the Swedish ruling class. Nationalism has always been a strong ideology in Sweden, and it has always taken on a right-wing form. Because of Swedish history and the country’s role as a small empire in the 17th century, there has always been a section of the ruling class that has wanted to return to that. The Swedish national anthem even contains the line: “We hold on to memories from great old days, When honoured your name flew across the earth.” 

Sweden also has a history as an oppressor of other nations, in particular Norway and Finland, and its own native ethnic Sami minority. Because of this, Swedish nationalism has always had a strong right-wing and racist element. This is very different from countries like Ireland where, because the country was oppressed, nationalism has historically taken a more left-wing form.

The far-right have always been lurking in the background, even after the destruction of Nazi Germany when outright fascist ideas became discredited. Neo-Nazi gangs particularly grew in the 1980s, and then during the 1990s crisis. Most of the current leadership of the Sweden Democrats first joined hard-core neo-Nazi groups at that time. 

There was a failed, but close, attempt by a far-right grouping (New Democracy) to get elected to parliament in the early 1990s. But it wasn’t until the 2000s that the Sweden Democrats reformed themselves into a more respectable political party and began making gains. They removed their brown shirts and put on suits.

"[T]he line for what’s acceptable to express is constantly moved it can lead to extremists who incite violence feeling that they have support, not just for their opinions, but also to commit crimes.”

—Fredrik Hallström of the Swedish Security Police

The party was formed from a breakaway of the openly racist ’Keep Sweden Swedish' organisation which distributed stickers with a ‘Warning to Swedish girls’ to ‘not shame your race, your Sweden’ by entering mixed race relationships and to ‘Only have an abortion if absolutely necessary’.[3]

The small Neo-Nazi groups that formed in the 1980s and 1990s were responsible for significant violence against the left. 

In 1995, 14 year old John Hron was tortured and murdered by a gang of Nazis. John was an outspoken anti-racist and had previously received death threats from his killers. 

In 1999 trade unionist and syndicalist activist Bjӧrn Sӧderberg was shot dead by Neo-Nazis. He had exposed a member of his local union committee as a Nazi and was killed in revenge. 

But fascist violence was not just a feature of the economic crisis of the 1990s.

According to a Norwegian study, Sweden has had the highest far-right murder rate per head of population in Western Europe in the last 25 years.[4] A total of 16 murders have been carried out by far-right extremists. 

The most recent was the murder of Ing-Marie Wieselgren, the national psychiatry co-ordinator of the Health Regions, who was stabbed to death at the political festival Almedalen in July 2022. The murderer had at one point been a member of the Nordic Resistance Movement, the biggest neo-Nazi group in the Nordic countries. 

Even the Swedish state has raised concerns about far-right violence. Fredrik Hallström of the Swedish Security Police said that when “the line for what’s acceptable to express is constantly moved it can lead to extremists who incite violence feeling that they have support, not just for their opinions, but also to commit crimes.” [5] He was basically saying that when everyday racism becomes acceptable, it opens up the door for far-right terrorism and violence. 

Swedish police are not known for being left-wing or anti-Nazis by any means. On the contrary, the police are more likely to defend fascist manifestations against left-wing counter-protesters. They have also cracked down hard on left-wing activists and anarchists. In 2001 during the riots at the EU summit in Gothenburg, the police shot 19 year old protester Hannes Westberg in the stomach. He was lucky to survive.

Divide and conquer

While the hard-core fascists and the far-right have used street violence against the left and trade unionists, the bosses have used racism to undermine the workers’ movement. 

The Laval case is a good example - the building company hired Latvian construction workers to work on a site in Sweden but paid them Latvian wages. The case went all the way to the EU courts, where it was ruled that freedom of movement and competition trumps the right of workers, and the company won the case.

Alongside the bosses, the media has also played its part in perpetuating racist ideas. The right-wing media has helped the far-right by perpetuating the idea that migrants are ‘putting pressure on the welfare service’. In fact, of course, it’s the privatisation of those services, and the profiteering of the private companies, that are causing problems for people accessing these services. The cutbacks and austerity of the 1990s were the deliberate policies of both the right-wing and the Social Democratic governments of the time. This has nothing to do with the arrival of migrants from places like former Yugoslavia, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan and recently from Syria and East Africa. In fact, it’s many of these migrants that are keeping the health and caring sectors from complete collapse through their tireless work as doctors, nurses and care assistants.

"[I]t’s the privatisation of those services, and the profiteering of the private companies, that are causing problems for people accessing these services."

The media also like to publish sensationalised stories about violent crime and gang criminality. These types of stories sell newspapers. At a time when physical newspaper sales are dwindling, it has become an easy way to keep up sales.

The reality of crime, and specifically violent crime, is very different from what you read in the papers. For a number of reasons, it’s difficult to interpret crime statistics. People are more likely to report crimes now than they were in the past. There have also been different ways of gathering statistics in relation to crime in Sweden. What we do know is that lethal violence (i.e. violent deaths) increased between 1950 and the 1970s. Then it flatlined from the 1970s to 1992 and increased again after 1992. This seems to indicate that violent deaths were less likely during the height of the welfare state.

In recent years the methods for gathering crime statistics have improved. They show that between 2002 and 2021, there has been no substantial increase in deadly violence. The number of lethal violent crimes was 98 in 2002 - and 113 in 2021.[6]

A researcher at the official institution for the prevention of crime (Brottsförebyggande rådet) Klara Hradilova Selin said: “Lethal violence has varied somewhat over time. But even if some types of lethal violent crimes have increased in recent years, the overall level of lethal violence is lower today compared to the early 1990s, if you consider population numbers.”[7]

One category of crime where there has been a statistical increase is sexual violence and rape. Reported instances of rape have increased by 53% since 2012.[8] The far-right use this figure to spread lies about migrant men raping Swedish women, but the increase can be explained by a number of things. There were changes in legislation in terms of sexual assault and rape in 2005, 2013 and 2018. From 2005 some crimes that would have been previously labelled sexual assault were classified as rape. From 2013 instances where a person is incapable of giving consent (such as under the influence of alcohol or drugs) were classified as rape. In 2018 the laws around consent changed to active consent, that means that any sexual act where active consent has not been given will be considered rape.[9]

In addition, it’s likely that more women are now reporting instances of rape because victims are less fearful of stigma or of not being believed. This is thanks to the work of feminists and left-wing activists campaigning against gender-based violence.

"The fascination with crime is a useful tool to distract working-class people from the real issues in society, such as the destruction of public services or increasing inequality."

A study was also done to look at refugees and increases in sexual violence. Sweden doesn’t record perpetrators’ place of birth in crime statistics but if these crimes were committed by refugees it would show a disproportionate increase in areas that have accepted large numbers of refugees. This is not the case. According to the Crime Prevention Agency, the council areas that took in high numbers of refugees in recent years do not show a higher number of reported rape cases.[10] 

The obsession with crime by the mainstream media is not just a Swedish phenomenon. In many countries, there's a trend in the media to report more on crime, but the reality is that crime is actually decreasing. The fascination with crime is a useful tool to distract working-class people from the real issues in society, such as the destruction of public services or increasing inequality. In fact, when crimes do increase, the causes are likely to be poverty, unemployment and inequality.

Fascists in government?

While the Sweden Democrats have put on suits and may look respectable, their policies are deeply racist. They want to make Swedish citizenship a requirement for child benefit, housing assistance and pensions. This would mean that those arriving as refugees or migrants would receive nothing, and would be pushed even further into poverty. At the moment, 20% of people born outside Sweden already live in poverty. More than 40% of children born abroad are living in poverty, as opposed to 6% of children born in Sweden.[11]

It looked likely that the Sweden Democrats would be part of a right-wing coalition government after the 2022 election. The party tried to be very clever. After the election, they said that they would not join the government, but, instead, would support the government in exchange for the position of speaker of the house. The speaker of the house is a hugely important position that has responsibility for government formation talks, and for organising agendas and work in Parliament. They lost their bid for the speaker position but signed up for a ‘Programme for Government’ with two other right-wing parties. It’s a deeply racist and neoliberal programme which will continue the deepening inequality with an emphasis on ‘law & orde’ and targeting of migrants and refugees. The Sweden Democrats did not take Ministerial positions, leaving them open to play both sides. They got a number of their racist policies into the programme for government while being able to pretend that they’re not in power. 

If you look at who voted for the Sweden Democrats in the recent election, you’ll see that a large section of their vote came from rural and middle-class voters. In my home town of Motala, the Sweden Democrats was the biggest party in the rural electoral districts at about 25%/30%, but in working-class areas of public housing, they only got 10%/15%, while the left got about 60% of the vote. In the cities, the left (the Social Democrats and the Left Party) did very well in the council elections. For example, the Left Party got 15.8% of the vote in the council elections in Göteborg.

One of the reasons why the right (mainstream and far-right parties) managed to narrowly win this election is because of the failure of the Social Democrats in power. From 2014 until 2022, they formed minority coalition governments with the Green Party. However, because they have been minority governments, they have relied on the support of other parties, primarily the Centre Party (former Rural Party). In 2021 the coalition fell apart, but the Social Democrats were able to continue in government with the support of other parties.

You might think that coming back to power after the attacks by the right-wing, they would have undone some of the horrific privatisation. But the reality of the recent Social Democratic governments has been a complete disappointment. The party has made numerous promises to end profiteering by publicly-funded service providers, but they didn’t deliver on their promises. They didn’t reverse any of the privatisation measures, nor did they reform the tax system to stop tax avoidance by the wealthy.

How can the left fight the far-right?

The experience of the recent Social Democratic governments has been deeply disappointing. When the left (or centre-left) lets people down, it opens up space for the far-right to grow, and that is exactly what has happened in Sweden. The far-right relies on people’s despair to make gains. When people don’t think that there’s another alternative, or they think it’s too difficult to go after the rich, just saying ‘get rid of the immigrants’ seems like an easy solution.

That’s why you need a socialist left that’s clear on the need for system change, not just reforms within the capitalist framework. In Sweden, there is no such party, or at least not of a significant size. 

The left also needs to do the groundwork of local organising and campaigning to win the trust of working-class people. Workers need to return to grassroots organising within the trade unions to push the union bureaucrats to take action against attacks on working conditions and privatisation. 

The left also needs to confront and counter the fascists when they organise on the streets. The Swedish left has done this to some extent but mainly as individuals or small groups such as Anti-Fa. Smashing the fascists requires a united front of all progressive elements within the workers’ movement. 

As the far-right are beginning to organise in Ireland, we need to take action to prevent their growth. We need to build united fronts to bring people together against the fascists. We need to counter the hate and fear being spread by the far-right, both in our propaganda and on the streets. We need to build People Before Profit in working-class areas by proving that we are the best fighters on issues like housing.

With the possibility of a Sinn Féin government, many working-class people will pin their hopes of improvements on housing, health and cost of living on Sinn Féin. But when Sinn Féin breaks their promises, whether as a coalition partner of Fianna Fáil or in some ‘left’ coalition, there will be deep anger and disappointment. We need to put ourselves in a position to steer this anger in a left-wing direction, or we might see the rise of the far-right on a scale that’s never been seen in Ireland before. 

Article originally published in Issue 10 of Rupture Magazine. Subscribe or purchase previous issues here.

Notes

1. TILLVÄXT MOTALA, ‘ARBETSLÖSHET I KOMMUNEN REKORDLÅG’ , 3 March 2022, https://tillvaxtmotala.se/motala-har-rekordlag-arbetsloshet/

2. Statistikmyndigheten ‘Arbetskraftsundersökningarna (AKU)’, https://www.scb.se/hitta-statistik/statistik-efter-amne/arbetsmarknad/arbetskraftsundersokningar/arbetskraftsundersokningarna-aku/

3. Expo, ‘Bevara Sverige sve­nskt (BSS)’, 16 April 2018, https://expo.se/fakta/wiki/bevara-sverige-sve%C2%ADnskt-bss

4. Svenska Dagbladet – Sveriges kvalitetssajt för nyheter, ‘Sverige har mest högerextremt våld’ ,2 November 2015, https://www.svd.se/a/bb778220-a430-4969-90b9-c73e0ffd569d/sverige-har-mest-hogerextremt-vald

5. Landets Fria, ‘Vi måste prata om det högerextrema våldet’, 26 August 2022, https://landetsfria.nu/2022/nummer-348/vi-maste-prata-om-det-hogerextrema-valdet/

6. SVT Nyheter, ‘BRÅ: 113 dog av dödligt våld 2021’, 31/03/2022, https://www.svt.se/nyheter/inrikes/113-dog-av-dodligt-vald-2021

7. SVT Nyheter, ‘BRÅ: 113 dog av dödligt våld 2021’, 31/03/2022, https://www.svt.se/nyheter/inrikes/113-dog-av-dodligt-vald-2021

8. BRA, ‘Våldtäkt och sexualbrott’, https://bra.se/statistik/statistik-utifran-brottstyper/valdtakt-och-sexualbrott.html

9. BRA, ‘Indikatorer på sexualbrottsutvecklingen 2005–2017’, ‘https://bra.se/publikationer/arkiv/publikationer/2019-05-28-indikatorer-pa-sexualbrottsutvecklingen-2005-2017.html

10. BRA, ‘Indikatorer på sexualbrottsutvecklingen 2005–2017’, https://bra.se/publikationer/arkiv/publikationer/2019-05-28-indikatorer-pa-sexualbrottsutvecklingen-2005-2017.html

11. Andreas Cervenka(2022), Girig-Sverige, p. 215