Sweden Democrats move from isolation to role in government talks

Sweden’s far-right Sweden Democrats have moved from political isolation to a central role in keeping the country’s government in office. Al Jazeera reported that the party, once rejected by all major parties because of its extremist roots, is now Sweden’s second-largest party and a key parliamentary ally of the right-wing government.

The shift has reshaped Swedish politics ahead of September’s election. It has also pushed immigration, crime and national identity further into the centre of government policy, according to researchers and commentators interviewed by Al Jazeera.

From extremist roots to rebranding

The Sweden Democrats were founded in the 1980s by Nazi sympathisers and emerged from the far-right “Keep Sweden Swedish” movement, Al Jazeera reported. The party’s first auditor, Gustaf Ekstrom, had served in the armed combat branch of the SS, and other early figures had links to violent far-right groups.

Morgan Finnsio, a researcher at the Expo Foundation who studies far-right movements, told Al Jazeera that the party began trying to shed its neo-Nazi image after the 1990s. He cited its 2003 embrace of “open Swedishness,” a formulation that presented Swedish identity as something immigrants could theoretically gain through assimilation.

Finnsio said the party made further changes between 2014 and 2020, describing itself as conservative, expelling its youth wing for extremism, removing some members and discouraging the spread of far-right alternative media. Al Jazeera reported that it also dropped its calls for Sweden to leave the European Union and gave up opposition to NATO membership.

Daphne Halikiopoulou, a comparative politics professor at the University of York, told Al Jazeera that the Sweden Democrats followed a path used by other hard far-right parties in Europe: changing their image and rhetoric while moving closer to acceptability in mainstream politics.

Election gains opened the door

The party entered parliament in 2010 after passing Sweden’s 4 percent threshold, winning 20 seats. Al Jazeera reported that the 2015 refugee crisis then gave the party an opening after years of linking immigration to crime, terrorism and security.

About 1.3 million asylum seekers reached Europe that year, including 163,000 in Sweden, Al Jazeera reported. Sweden’s annual SOM survey found that immigration quickly became the top issue for 53 percent of Swedish voters.

By the 2018 election, the Sweden Democrats had won 17.5 percent of the vote and 62 seats, making them the third-largest party. Zina al-Dewany, a political commentator and Aftonbladet editorial writer, told Al Jazeera that this was when other parties began to move away from treating the Sweden Democrats as untouchable.

Al-Dewany pointed to a series of symbolic meetings between 2018 and 2022. Christian Democrat leader Ebba Busch met Sweden Democrats leader Jimmie Akesson in 2019 for what became known as the “meatball lunch,” while Moderate leader Ulf Kristersson, now prime minister, later hosted Akesson for coffee in his office.

The Tido deal and the Liberal shift

In October 2022, four right-wing party leaders signed the Tido Agreement at Tido Castle, Al Jazeera reported. The 62-page deal created the basis for Sweden’s current coalition government and set out policy changes on immigration and crime.

The Liberals initially drew a line at sharing a formal cabinet with the Sweden Democrats, even while negotiating policy with them. In May 2026, Liberal leader and Education and Integration Minister Simona Mohamsson said her party would allow the Sweden Democrats to take part in a future government.

Al Jazeera reported that Akesson then offered Mohamsson a handshake on live television and she embraced him. The moment drew attention because Mohamsson, born in Germany to a Palestinian father and a Lebanese mother, had previously campaigned against the far right and opposed the Sweden Democrats entering government.

Since the Tido Agreement, al-Dewany said, the Sweden Democrats have become embedded in government decision-making. Their influence has been visible in criminal justice policy, including support for tougher sentences and a lower age of criminal responsibility; Al Jazeera reported that the government settled on 14 after a proposal to set it at 13 lacked enough parliamentary support.

Finnsio told Al Jazeera that the Moderates and Christian Democrats have adopted parts of the Sweden Democrats’ argument that migration and failed integration sit behind many of Sweden’s problems. Al-Dewany said the wider acceptance of the party has also helped legitimise its policies and rhetoric.

Polls cited by Al Jazeera suggest the left-wing opposition bloc is on course to win September’s election, after backlash to some immigration measures including deportations of young people. Tanvir Mansur, a Swedish political journalist and commentator, told Al Jazeera that the debate also reflects a broader pressure on people with immigrant backgrounds to assimilate into Swedish society.

This story draws on original reporting from Al Jazeera.