Populist Sweden Democrats leader Jimmie Åkesson visited the headquarters of the centre-right Moderates this week after a projected election result put the party in second place, and possibly in line to form a centre-right coalition government.
Populist party leader Åkesson was spotted at the Moderates’ office in Stockholm but was tight-lipped regarding the details of his visit, telling the Swedish press he was there to have lunch and did not disclose who he met at the Moderates’ office. Linus Bylund, the chief of staff for the Moderates, confirmed the visit and said the parties were talking but did not go into detail.
Liberals party leader Johan Pehrson is also said to have visited the offices of the Moderates but was also hesitant to say anything to the media stating, ” I have nothing to announce, unfortunately, nothing to say,” broadcaster SVT reports.
Ebba Busch, leader of the Christian Democrats and the fourth member of the mooted centre-right bloc, was also seen at the Moderates’ office and said, “We have had continuous contact throughout the election campaign, and of course also during yesterday evening and during the night.”
Final election results are expected to come in on either Wednesday or Thursday as mail-in and overseas ballots were not counted as of Monday and could change the already close election result by as much as three per cent according to some experts. In the preliminary results, the centre-right bloc led the centre-left bloc by just a single seat in the Swedish parliament.
It remains unclear whether or not the Sweden Democrats will be included formally in a new government and legacy media abroad has linked the party to Nazism. While the party, which was formed in 1988, did initially have members with far-right links, since becoming leader in 2005 Jimmie Akesson has comprehensively reformed the party and moved to remove extremists.
While the Sweden Democrats (SD) saw their most successful election campaign, they were not the only party to see a surge of support in the election. The Islamic Nyans party also saw gains in some of Sweden’s heavily migrant-populated no-go areas, such as the Gothenburg area of Svartemosse, part of the notorious Biskopsgården area, where the party polled at 25.2 per cent and achieved around ten per cent in Gothenburg overall.
In the multicultural city of Malmo, the party also saw a surge of support, particularly from those offended by the Qur’an-burning demonstrations carried out by Danish anti-Islam activist Rasmus Paludan in recent months.
In the no-go area of Rosengård, which saw riots in 2020 and again earlier this year after Qur’an burnings, residents said they voted for Nyans specifically to stop Paludan and his supporters and give Nyans over 30 per cent of the vote in the area.
“I usually vote for the Social Democrats, but now I voted for Nyans. They say they want to help the Muslims,” local resident Mohammed Eljechi told the newspaper Aftonbladet and added, ” It is clear that when Muslims hear that a party wants to benefit them for the future, they choose it. It is also the only party that has said that Paludan should be stopped. The other parties have not even mentioned it.”
The Islamic Nyans party was founded and is led by Mikail Yüksel, who was once a member of the Centre Party before being kicked out due to ties to the ultranationalist Turkish Grey Wolves.