Voting is taking place today, Sunday 9 September, in Sweden and the political elections are opening up new uncertainties for Europe, already put to the test by far-right sovereign parties and by the advance of populism mobilized in an anti-euro key. In Stockholm, as elsewhere, it is the issues of immigration and anti-European rhetoric that take center stage, so much so as to jeopardize the tenure of the Social Democrats at the helm of the country.
Twenty-four hours after the vote, the latest polls perhaps do not envisage the political earthquake – the PS's reversal in favor of the SD, the far-right Swedish Democrats party – which some had initially feared. But the result of the vote that 7 million Swedes are calling for will probably mark a new stage in the advance of the populist right in Europe, just a few months before the big showdown in the European elections. Making the formation of a new government in Stockholm complex.
The Swedish Democrats are led by Jimmie Åkesson, the not yet 40-year-old leader who took over the leadership in 2005, purging the party – with neo-Nazi roots – of the most extremist elements and guaranteeing it entry into Parliament in 2010 (and in 2014 almost the 13%). Today most surveys accredit Sverigedemo Craterna (Sd) of percentages between 18 and 20%, behind a Social Democratic Party strongly downsized (around 25%, at its historic lows) and ahead of the Moderates (17%). But Sd, riding on a very hot topic like the migration crisis, could do even better: the latest YouGov poll, controversial for the sample used, even assigns it first place with 24,8% of the votes. But the real risk is that an overwhelming result for one block or the other does not come out of the polls, thus putting the formation of the new government in difficulty.
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The strong point of the SD electoral campaign was the association between immigration and crime, supported by episodes of cornca which in the month of August saw some gangs of masked youths protagonists in episodes of urban violence (particularly in Gothenburg and Malmo ). The other relevant issue was that of the much-vaunted welfare system, undermined – according to the sovereign right – as a result of immigration which seems to have become the only explanation for all of Sweden's problems. The Swedes are therefore confronted with a search for their own identity and values and with the fear that the models that made it famous on the continent are now being thrown into crisis.
Problems and concerns that cross all European countries, Italy in primis, and which are however exploited by the new movements. In Sweden, the Social Democrats are at risk, but Europe too, on the eve of the May elections, could receive another "blow" from the Swedish polls. A new piece in the match between the pro-European bloc, which sees its first bishop in the French president Emmanuel Macron, e the sovereign axis which unites Matteo Salvini's League and Marine Le Pen's Rassemblement National with the countries of the Visegrad group (Hungary, Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia).
