What happened
Sverigedemokraterna dropped by 3.0 percentage points compared to the 2022 parliamentary election. For the first time in the party's history, the continuous rise in elections has thus been broken. The event has attracted attention in international media with headlines claiming that the far-right's march toward power in Sweden has been stopped. In the rest of the Nordic region, similar parties have previously suffered dramatic losses of voters, which subsequently led the parties to change their tactics.
Our analysis
The loss of 3.0 percentage points certainly breaks a long trend for Sverigedemokraterna, but international reporting draws too far-reaching conclusions when claiming that the development has been permanently halted. What foreign observers miss is the pattern from neighboring countries: when equivalent parties in the Nordic region previously fell sharply, it did not lead to their downfall, but rather to them shifting strategy and making a comeback. Sverigedemokraterna's leadership now faces a crossroads on how to reverse the trend and what new tactics are required. For new Swedes, the question is what such a shift means for political rhetoric and demands going forward.
Source: Svenska Dagbladet