A short-lived rightwing protest won nearly 7% of the vote in 1991.
Sweden‘s ruling centre-right coalition beat the Social Democrat opposition in yesterday’s election but failed to win an outright majority and the far-right Sweden Democrats won seats in parliament for the first time.
Early results showed Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt’s four-party Alliance coalition winning 173 seats in the 349-seat parliament, just three short of a majority. The result makes Reinfeldt, the Moderate party leader, the first non-socialist to win re-election since the 1930s. The Social Democrat-led opposition bloc won 156 seats while the anti-immigration Sweden Democrats got 20 seats, entering parliament for the first time.
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The rise of the far-right party, which has moved away from its skinhead roots under a youthful leadership and the slogan “Tradition and Security”, reflects a wider anti-immigrant backlash across Europe, as recession and budget cuts take hold. In their campaign, the Sweden Democrats raised the spectre of creeping Islamicisation of society and promised to crack down on immigration.