Sweden on Verge of 'Trump Moment' as Anti-Immigration Outrage Surges
06-21-2018
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Sweden could be on the verge of a major political shift, thanks to a raging immigration debate. Support for Sweden's socially conservative Sweden Democrats has reached a 2.5 year record high just two-and-a-half months before the general election.
A YouGov poll shows the party up by six points with 29 percent support. The Social Democrats are second at 22 percent. That's a big deal because the ultra-liberal Social Democrats have dominated Swedish politics for a century.
Sweden, YouGov poll:
— Europe Elects (@EuropeElects) June 20, 2018
SD-EFDD: 29% (+6)
S-S&D: 22% (-1)
M-EPP: 17% (-1)
V-LEFT: 9%
C-ALDE: 7% (-3)
L-ALDE: 4%
MP-G/EFA: 4%
KD-EPP: 3%
Fi-S&D: 1% (-1)
Field work: 15/06/18 – 18/06/18
Sample size: 1,520#svpol #val2018
Swedish political analyst Tino Sanandagi writes that Sweden could be about to have its "Trump moment," saying the polls "predict that this will be a watershed election for Swedes, perhaps the first since 1917 where the Social Democratic Party does not finish first."
Sanandagi says only 27 percent of Swedes believe the country is heading in the right direction, while 50 percent think that it is going in the wrong direction.
He also says the Sweden Democrats "have roughly doubled their vote share in each election since 2002, when they scored little more than 1 percent."
For the first time in Swedish electoral history, immigration and crime are the top concerns of voters, and the Sweden Democrats' party platform says that immigration "must be kept at such a level ... that it does not pose a threat to our national identity or to the welfare and security of our country"
Despite its rise in the polls, the Sweden Democrats have remained isolated in Parliament because other parties have not wanted to cooperate with them.
Swedes will head to the polls on September 9th.
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