Sweden Democrats lose support in 285 municipalities in Sweden
In Sweden, the Sweden Democrats party lost voter support in 285 out of 290 municipalities in the general election. Its result fell by three percentage points, although before the vote the party was forecast to retain its status as the second-largest after the Social Democrats, The Local Sweden reports.
Decline in party support
Political scientist and publisher at the Timbro think tank Andreas Johansson Heinö described the decline in support as surprisingly sharp. According to him, a distinctive feature of the result was that the three parties of the Tidö governing coalition improved their positions, while the Sweden Democrats lost votes.
Party leader Jimmie Åkesson explained the result on election night by saying that the Sweden Democrats had actively worked for the entire coalition. In his view, this may have encouraged voters to support the coalition as a whole rather than a single political force; some of them chose the Liberal Party on voting day. Johansson Heinö viewed this explanation as an attempt to present the result in a positive light.
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Young voters and competition on the right
Support for the Sweden Democrats also declined among young people. In school mock elections, the party lost seven percentage points — the largest loss among the participants in the vote — while the Moderates became the largest party. Johansson Heinö believes that a right-wing political trend persists among young voters, but that the Moderates have partly taken over the Sweden Democrats' electorate.
The party recorded its biggest drop in the municipality of Hällefors in the Örebro region. Johansson Heinö suggested that the Sweden Democrats' votes there may have been taken over by the Örebro Party, led by Markus Allard. In his assessment, the result may also be affected by competition from small far-right parties, including Alternative for Sweden and Medborgerlig Samling.
The political scientist added that some voters may have been alienated by radical rhetoric, including controversial statements by MP Richard Jomshof about treason and Muslims. Despite a drop of three percentage points, the Sweden Democrats remain a significant political force.
