Tag: At the Center

Never mind the headlines: Sunday’s election in Sweden was a major setback for the far right. The populist-nationalist Sweden Democrats may have seen their percentage of the vote increase from 13 percent in 2014 to just shy of 18 percent this year, but they and many experts anticipated a much higher share; some even predicted that they would become the largest party in the country. Such an outcome would have been in keeping with their history of rapid growth, of more than doubling their previous tally in every election since 1998. This year, multiple parties —including the center-left Social Democrats and center-right Moderates—included calls for reduction in their platform. Those sentiments had no outlet in establishment politics, creating an opportunity for the Sweden Democrats. Prime Minister Stefan Löfven initially said there was theoretically no limit to the number of immigrants Sweden could embrace. In late November 2015, the center-left government, headed by the Social Democrats and the Green Party, initiated restrictions on refugee immigration. The Sweden Democrats had been right: Refugee migration was destabilizing the country. The country’s largest parties, the Social Democrats and the Moderates, as well as the center-right Christian Democrats, adopted platforms calling for reduced immigration, and they carried those positions into elections this year. The far-right party will not have the opportunity to implement its long-desired reductions in immigration, or any other policy for that matter.