Despite several differences, there is today a broad cross-block consensus that migration to Sweden needs to be tight. Nevertheless, SD’s attitude towards those who have reconsidered their migration policy after 2015 is often both aggressive and questioning.
The Kremlin has paid a number of far-right forces in several EU countries to spread Russian propaganda
This unforgiving view on others stands in stark contrast to SD’s constant diminishment of its own party’s dark past and racist roots. The same applies to the party’s often ambivalent view of Putin’s Russia. Last week it was revealed that the Kremlin has paid a number of far-right forces in several EU countries to spread Russian propaganda. Among other things via the Voice of Europe news site.
The Sweden Democrats has over the years acted in several ways in the interests of Putin’s Russia:
• A week before Russia’s full-scale war of aggression against Ukraine, party leader Jimmie Åkesson could not choose between Putin and Biden.
• SD’s former defense policy spokesperson Roger Richtoff spread false Kremlin propaganda against Ukraine after the outbreak of war in 2022.
claimed that eastern Ukraine and Crimea were part of Russia
• SD-affiliated media profiler Chang Frick, from both Riks and Nyheter Idag, openly cheered for Putin at the outbreak of war, and claimed that eastern Ukraine and Crimea were part of Russia. He also financed Rasmus Paludan’s Koran burnings, and certified as an “election observer” in 2017 that the extremely rigged regional election in Moscow had gone right.
• SD’s former party leader Mikael Jansson went to Moscow in 2018 and thanked Russian President Putin at an official event.
• SD officials Egor Putilov and Dick Abrahamsson were forced to resign after revelations that they were a security risk and had spread pro-Russian propaganda and praised Putin, respectively.
• SD-affiliated sites such as Exakt24, Insikt24, SamNytt and Nya Tider have repeatedly published Russian propaganda, praised Putin and published the Kremlin’s “chief ideologist” Alexander Dugin.
When the Social Democrats during the 2022 election campaign warned of this, protested a visibly disturbed Jimmie Åkesson. Two years later, everyone can state that SD’s actions during the Koran burnings and the NATO process seriously contributed to worsening the Swedish security situation, and for a long time risked leaving Sweden outside the important security guarantees.
SD presented the summer 2022 the first part of his white paper, about the partly Nazi and racist origins of the party. This summer, the next part of the white paper will be ready. Then with a focus on SD’s idea base.
that SD also needs to produce a third part of its white paper: about the party’s connections to Putin’s Russia
The latest revelation about Russian support for far-right parties in EU countries means that SD also needs to produce a third part of its white paper: about the party’s connections to Putin’s Russia. Until today. Because the tracks are terrifying. And this is precisely what the election on June 9 is about: the EU as a defense against Putin, Trump and other right-wing radical forces.
It is important to make these connections clear to voters. Because I wouldn’t be surprised if the Sweden Democrats become the first Swedish party to betray Ukraine. Like their cousins in the American Trump right, Orbán’s Hungary and several other right-wing radicals around the EU.
Daniel Färm is political editor for Aktuellt i Politiken
