Written by: Kelly Grounds, SFU Student

Sweden held their national elections on Sunday. Early exit polls from the election are showing strong gains for the Sweden Democrats — a nationalist party that is strongly against immigration, and partially founded by individuals with neo-Nazi ties.

Currently, Sweden is governed by a coalition between the Social Democrats, Left, and Green parties. While they most likely will continue to govern the country (exit polls show that they are in the lead with 28% of the vote), it will be in the form of a minority government. A minority that could see the Sweden Democrats become the official opposition.

In the past, Sweden has been known to have a very strong position on protecting human rights, a prime example being that they took in a huge number of refugees at the height of the Syrian Civil War. If the Sweden Democrats take the position of official opposition, many fear that the country’s position on human rights will become more nationalistic.

One of the Sweden Democrats’ main campaigning points was to limit the levels of refugees being admitted, as well as being significantly more selective in the immigration process. This, coupled with their desire to promote a Swedish Brexit (Swexit), has made them a polarizing party that potentially will gain the ability to promote their agenda following this election.

Seeing Sweden’s potential shift in government is another example of an unfortunate trend in politics. Nationalistic parties are gaining more traction and the results are quite simply unnerving. First, Donald Trump won the United States election on a campaign of anti-immigration and nationalistic pride. This was followed by Brexit, another political movement fueled by nationalistic feelings. Now, we are seeing Swedish politics take on the same tone, and one cannot help but wonder how much farther the trend will go.