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Sweden Democrats hit all-time high in new poll

Published: 12 Nov 12 07:48 CET | Print version
Online: http://www.thelocal.se/44366/20121112/

The far-right Sweden Democrats have recorded their highest voter-support poll results ever, shooting up to 11.2 percent, with party leader Jimmie Åkesson stating the party is on "the road to success".

A voter survey carried out by the United Minds polling firm and published on Monday in the Aftonbladet newspaper shows voter support for the Sweden Democrats has reached 11.2 percent, the party’s highest-ever result.

The results come from a survey held between October 11th and November 14th which shows the party in a clear third place behind the Social Democrats (31 percent) and Moderates (27.8 percent).

The same polling firm showed in June that the far-right party had support of 8.7 percent of voters, meaning the party’s popularity has risen 2.5 percentage points in five months.

“We’ve been moving forward in all opinion polls in all the institutes over the past two months. It is a pleasant development for us. This is probably correlated with the development of society where the question of immigration has become more prominent,” Sweden Democrat leader Jimmie Åkesson told Aftonbladet.

The Sweden Democrats’ results are twice as high as when the party came into the Riksdag in 2010, with Åkesson explaining that the public has had the time to get used to the far-right political party.

“We have not been a proper alternative before because we have found ourselves on the outside, but now we’ve been in the Riksdag for a couple of years and the voters have had the time to get an understanding of us,” he said.

The poll results come after the party made moves in October to change their image, after being seen as “angry, young men” in the media.

“The Sweden Democrats are making progress in both big cities and among women, but a majority of voters still have a very negative view of the party,” explained United Minds analyst Carl Melin to the paper.

Meanwhile, poll results by other polling firms have also shown that the Sweden Democrats have had high levels of support.

This has prompted Foreign Minister Carl Bildt to suggest the party is “trying to isolate Sweden from the rest of the world” and Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt to label the party as nothing more than internet-based provocateurs "dressed up in suits".

A total of 1,255 people were surveyed in the poll, and were asked “Who would you vote for if the election was today?”

TT/The Local/og
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09:07 November 12, 2012 by rise
While Mr Åkesson is in line with many a Swedish taxpayer other parti leaders are more in line with other parti leaders. That is an important difference.

Far-right?? Considering SD are way left of Moderaterna... how far to the right does that make Moderaterna?
09:13 November 12, 2012 by Mxzf
It shows how many voters you can get, just by Wanting To Do Something, even if it's obviously not possible to follow that plan.

I wonder when the normal parties will start saying that they Want To Do Something rather than blaming each other for any misfortune.
10:39 November 12, 2012 by B Slick
A big reason for the sharp rise in SD is very simple. The other swedish political parties have simply ignored crime and uncontroled immigration thinking that the swedish people just dont care about issues like that, but they do!
12:57 November 12, 2012 by Peter Helenius
It´s really scary to see how much support parties like the Social Democrats still get rfom the Swedes.

Obviously Swedes tend to leave behind for their children a raped and pillaged country.
14:37 November 12, 2012 by Swedishmyth
The suppression of any speech that challenges or even just discusses the issues of multiculturalism and welfare immigration is the largest, most thorough form of co-operation ever between the Reichstag parties. Never before has any issue united them so completely.

But keeping the lid on increasing pressure won't make it go away; it'll only cause it to burst that much more violently when things go too far.

The incumbent parties are effectively waging war against the native Swedish populace. They are aiding and abetting the undoing of a nation.
16:39 November 12, 2012 by tercel
...the message propagated by Fredrik Reinfeldt, the sitting Prime Minister of Sweden.

"Too many people voted for the Sweden Democrats," he says, "so we are increasing immigration to teach all those racists a lesson!"

If immigration is such a good thing, and enriches our culture so much, how can it be used as a punishment?

The Prime Minister also provided an interesting revelation in his speech to the students. The agreement with the Green Party, which includes free medical and dental care to persons residing illegally in Sweden, was, according to the Conservative leader, a punishment of SD voters so that they would understand that refugee policy will become even more liberal if you go on voting for the Sweden Democrats.

Among other things, the leader of the Moderates complained that he found it difficult to reach Sweden Democrat voters because they utilize in media channels other than those in which the government's messages are allowed to stand unchallenged.

Excuse me, but is Fredrik Reinfeldt related to Joseph Goebbels?

NOW it is finally out -- the REAL neo-nazis are all the parties on the left.
17:09 November 12, 2012 by Rogerenden
""Too many people voted for the Sweden Democrats," he says, "so we are increasing immigration to teach all those racists a lesson!""

Good old amazing Reinfeldt doesn't have to live in Rosengård, though...

Well, even as a non-nativ I'd probably vote for SD right now -.-
18:23 November 12, 2012 by Svensksmith
Cause, effect.
19:22 November 12, 2012 by godnatt
Nice... Go SD!
21:08 November 12, 2012 by what would thomas paine do
Swedish voters, on average, rated the Sweden Democrats to the left of the Moderates. (See figures 10 and 11, pp. 252-3, Statistics Sweden 2006 Allmänna Valen.)
21:30 November 12, 2012 by Spuds MacKenzie
Heja SD!! I hope they can put an end to this out of control refugee importation nonsense! 50,000 uneducated refugees coming here in 2013 is INSANITY! There are no jobs here: stay away!
01:19 November 13, 2012 by cowboykodp
As with everything else, Sweden is 5 to 10 years behind every western country.

Almost all extremists and far right racist parties in the western world (such as SD) are loosing ground to more moderate and progressive sane parties.
09:57 November 13, 2012 by Scambaiter
Populist sc*mbags

Some people on this comment board don't seem to understand that there's a civil war going on in Syria.

But what the hell?..I'm alright, Jack.
09:58 November 13, 2012 by multicultralgenocide
cowboykodp explain why National Front has drown in popularity and the likes of Golden Dawn in Greece? National Front and Sweden Democrats are moderates, the only real far-right are the likes of Golden Dawn.
09:58 November 13, 2012 by Scambaiter
Populist ****bags

Some people on this comment board don't seem to understand that there's a civil war going on in Syria.

But what the ****?..I'm alright, Jack.
15:56 November 13, 2012 by godnatt
@cowboykodp

Hahaha.... SD had doubled their support to be in line as the third largest party in Sweden and are losing ground?

National Front, True Finns, Lega Nord, Golden Dawn (who actually are crazy) are losing ground??

You should move to North Korea. Their propagandists are almost as sad as you.
21:20 November 13, 2012 by Scambaiter
The Sweden Democrats are not a "moderate" party. For one thing, they have a white, Christian platform. They're a trojan horse for VAM, BSS and the rest of the white supremacists. The more intelligent, some would say devious, extreme right-wingers realized years ago that revolution by violence could not be achieved in an über-democracy like Sweden so they changed tack.

Extreme right-wing haters and bigots always stir up trouble in times of financial crisis, they need someone to blame -- it's not our fault, it's those others...the foreigners, the outsiders, whoever, but not "us".

The National Socialist German Workers' Party was founded out of the far-right racist völkisch German nationalist movement in 1920. It rose to power during the depression, piggybacking on democracy, and we all know what happened in 1932. The Nazis victimized Jews, gypsies, the disabled and all those others...foreigners, whoever, not "us".

During the Swedish banking crisis of the early 90s, the Swedish New Democracy party was founded by Wachtmeister and Karlsson and successfully campaigned on an agenda of reform and restricted immigration (initially on economic grounds rather than cultural). Meanwhile, the Laserman went round Stockholm shooting and terrorizing "blackheads".

Spot the similarity between that situation and the econokic situation now, the rise of the SD, the Progress Party in Norway, and that Breivik monster.

Greece has a massive financial crisis, enter the "Golden Dawn". ...and so on and so on ad nauseam.

Haters will always hate, and the rest of us -- about 90% of the population -- will keep trying to make the world a better place.
21:26 November 13, 2012 by Robert vernon
The policy should be to help these people in thier own homelands, not import them for cheap labour.
22:04 November 13, 2012 by SebastianLJ
@MulticulturalGenocide and GodNatt: You forget the fact that Geert Wilders' party lost half of its seats in the recent Dutch elections, and that the True Finns fell far short of their target for 16% of local seats during the recent municipal elections in Finland. Also, all of the True Finns' most prominent MP's received fewer votes in the municipal elections than in the parliamentary elections last year. So the grand entrance of the xenophobic parties is not as grand as you would prefer to believe.

Also, aren't the Sweden Democrats suffering from expulsions and defections in the hundreds in their own municipal areas? Even if they are now in third place, do you think you can explain how this won't negatively affect them in 2014?
22:50 November 13, 2012 by Scambaiter
That's right, Sebastian...

supporters of the right-wing populist parties delude themselves that because they're so prolific and vocal on the Internet, trawling around various websites protecting their right to "free speech", that polls accurately reflect their genuine popularity and that people vote for these parties for their misguided policies and not just out of spite/general dissatisfaction.

Mid-term opinion polls are not real elections, and the actual results in the countries that you mention underpin that there is NO groundswell in favour of xenophobia, except possibly in Greece, which is undergoing a catastrophic economic crisis.

90% > 10%
00:54 November 14, 2012 by Spuds MacKenzie
#15 @Scambaiter said "Some people on this comment board don't seem to understand that there's a civil war going on in Syria."

And?? Why should Syria's problems be any of Sweden's concern? If the Syrians can't handle things in their own country that's their problem.

Survival of the Fittest!
05:24 November 14, 2012 by ericrufinosiah
The reasons why Sweden Democrat is gaining in popularity is actually very

simple, the Party fights for the survival of the naitves Swedish,the party knows and

understandings the feelings of the natives Swedish on the problem caused and as

such the natives Swedish are now looking forward to Sweden Democrat as the Party that would clear Sweden of unheard of crimes and etc.
06:45 November 14, 2012 by Biorealist
This is no surprise, people in every country according to the Pew Global Attitudes Project are generally in favour of restricting the flow of people into their countries and preventing the loss of their culture. The Project findings note:

"In both affluent countries in the West and in the developing world, people are concerned about immigration. Large majorities in nearly every country surveyed express the view that there should be greater restriction of immigration and tighter control of their country's borders."

http://pewresearch.org/pubs/607/global-trade-immigration
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