In my dissertation project, I examine how the way established parties referred to the right-wing populist party Sverigedemokraterna (Sweden Democrats, SD), has changed between 2010 and 2024.
My research interest arises out of a possible peripety in Swedish politics: Unlike right-wing populist parties in Norway or Denmark that started out as anti-tax parties, SD gained traction as an explicit anti-immigration party and was voted into the Swedish parliament for the first time in 2010: Their roots in neo-nazi movements and their radical rhetoric led to the joint agreement of all mainstream parties to not collaborate with SD or appropriate their rhetoric, establishing a cordon sanitaire, effectively making SD a political pariah.
In 2022, SD became a support party for the centre-right government coalition. This leads me to the assumption that something must have changed. So, what changed? In order to find answers to whether and how the established parties’ understanding of SD might have changed since 2010, I focus on the two biggest established parties, M and S. I chose that focus to account for the agency and the power that mainstream political players have in determining what ideas and discourses are deemed acceptable.
My research will combine different theoretical approaches to analyze speeches given by their representatives at the annual event of Almedalen between 2010 to 2024. The event, founded in 1968 by then prime minister Olof Palme, has become one of the most important forums in Swedish Politics: Each political party represented in the national parliament, has a day dedicated to them, during which high ranking political actors – usually the parties’ deputies – give speeches addressing topics they deem most relevant.
Witnessing the (re-)emerging of right-wing populist parties in the Baltic Sea region and beyond, my research is highly important regarding unearthing, analyzing and scrutinizing discursive patterns to understand what roles mainstream political actors play in creating discourses fruitful for right-wing populist actors.