Europe’s far-right parties, once a distant threat to the political establishment, may be becoming an immediate danger. On Wednesday, the anti-immigrant Sweden Democrats forced the government to hold the first snap elections in 50 years by backing the opposition’s version of the budget and toppling the governing center-left coalition.
The upheaval in Sweden is the latest illustration of the growing power of anti-immigration parties across Europe. The U.K. Independence Party recently was able to capture two seats in the House of Commons, and in France, the National Front’s leader, Marine Le Pen, leads in the polls for the 2017 presidential election. The Swedish party, however, is already strong enough to swing a hammer.
Sweden’s political culture stresses tolerance. The Sweden Democrats, however, have a history of racism, despite a recent effort to appear more mainstream. This year, the party had to pull one of its candidates for a parliamentary seat after a photo of her wearing a swastika armband was published. The far-right group won 13 percent of the vote in the last elections, its highest result, giving it a decisive role in the balance of power in parliament. The crisis that forced the government to call new elections was sparked by the Sweden Democrats’ decision to oppose any budget that didn’t take into account its demand that immigration be cut by 90 percent. Social Democrat Prime Minister Stefan Loefven announced he would call elections in March…
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