From Pariah to Partner: How the Sweden Democrats (Sverigedemokraterna, SD) Were Made Support Party for the Center-Right Swedish Government Coalition (working title)
In my dissertation project, I examine how the fact that the right-wing populist party Sverigedemokraterna (Sweden Democrats, SD) were made a support party of the government coalition in 2022, was negotiated discursively. 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.
Following the Swedish General elections in 2022, the third-strongest party, liberal-conservative Moderaterna (M), invited the Christian Democrats (KD), the Liberals (L) and the second-strongest party, SD, to coalition talks. After a month, the newly formed government presented their coalition agreement (Tidöavtalet), signed by all four parties, including SD as an official support party. This outcome leads me to the assumption that something must have changed in the mainstream parties’ understanding of both immigration and of SD as acceptable partners to make such a cooperation possible. So, what changed?
In order to find answers to whether and how discourse on immigration has changed in Sweden 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.
