Sverigedemokraterna

The Sverigedemokraterna or Sweden Democrats are a far right political party in Sweden.

History

According to author Jens Rydgren, the Sweden Democrats have their roots in the extra-parliamentary far-right:

for the first half of the 1990s there was no clear distinction between the Sweden Democrats and different skinhead and Nazi organisations, and an overlap of membership was not uncommon.

Support

By 2014, the SD were the third largest party in Sweden, and won 20 parliamentary seats in the May 2014 elections

Racism

The Stephen Roth Institute for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism and Racism stated in a 2003 report on Sweden that: "Since the September 11 attacks antisemitism has remained a cornerstone of neo-Nazi ideology while islamophobia is disseminated primarily by the more “respectable” Sweden Democrats."

In March 2009, Sveriges Radio reported that an investigative team which infiltrated the party had encountered racist remarks at roughly one third of the meetings they attended:

Among other things, members of the Sweden Democrats who hold elected office said that immigrants aren’t loyal, don’t want to pay taxes, and would rather take black-market jobs.

“Those who come from these countries, they’re pretty raw and real savages… [laughter]…They are, it’s in their nature,” one elected official could be heard saying on SR’s tape.

At another meeting, immigrants are compared with dogs.

“Did you know that an immigrant who comes to Sweden from countries like Afghanistan and Africa sometimes come with 2,000 parasites in their body. Not ever our dogs have that many, and they have to sit in quarantine…,” said a Sweden Democrat representative, prompting several at the meeting to burst into laughter.

In October 2009, a survey by Demoskop found that 83 per cent of Swedes regarded the party as racist, but 38 per cent thought it was acceptable for other parties to co-operate with them.

Counterjihad links

In 2006, the party's website was closed down by its hosting company for carrying cartoons of the prophet Mohammed. This led to the resignation of Swedish foreign minister Laila Freivalds after it emerged that a Foreign Ministry official had contacted the hosting company.

In 2006, the American conservative writer Bruce Bawer described the Sweden Democrats as the only sizeable party in the country that "articulates most Swedes' concerns about their country's immigration and integration policies."

Sweden Democrats member Ted Ekeroth spoke at the Counterjihad Europa conference in Brussels on October 2007.

In September 2009, the Party's international secretary, Kent Ekeroth hosted an 'anti-Islamisation' seminar in Mälmo. Speakers included Jordanian journalist Ghada Hanna, Mrutyuanjai Mishra from India and Alan Lake from the UK. Lake discussed how the counterjihad movement in England was building alliances with football supporters.

Pegida links

According to English language translations of Swedish press reports, SD supporters were involved in the first, poorly attended protest of Pegida Swerige, an attempt to start a movement similar to the PEGIDA protests seen in Germany.

People

Jimmie Åkesson - Party leader| Kent Ekeroth - International Secretary | Ted Ekeroth

Contact

• Website http://www.sverigedemokraterna.se/