Politics in Sweden: Why Sweden's far-right Sweden Democrats leader is showing his radical side

[Celerity]

Jimmie Åkesson's call for mosques in Sweden to be demolished was part of a speech that flirted with extreme right ideas of "the great replacement". Rather than becoming more moderate, the Sweden Democrats are getting more radical.

https://www.thelocal.se/20231127/politics-in-sweden-why-swedens-far-right-leader-is-showing-his-radical-side

https://archive.is/0ARVC



As Sweden's most long-standing party leader, Åkesson has a deep understanding of how the media and the other political parties function. So when he called in a speech on Saturday for mosques in the country to be demolished, he knew exactly how much commotion he was going to generate. The party even pulled out the 27 seconds of the speech when Åkesson calls for mosques to be taken over or demolished and published it on their You Tube channel. It was the only excerpt it published from the 40-minute speech.

This was not a misjudged phrase taken out of context from a conference speech. This was the main message. "The Sweden Democrats party needs to radicalise its political message in order to maintain their role as a clear and visible alternative to the Moderates and the Christian Democrats," Jens Rydberg, a professor at Stockholm University, told The Local. "As other parties have shifted their positions, and increasingly accommodated the Sweden Democrats' politics on immigration and related areas, the Sweden Democrats need to shift position as well," he said.

The much harsher rhetoric on Islam, or at least Islamism, has certainly created distance. Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, from the Moderate Party, attacked Åkesson's statements as "disrespectful" and "polarising", while Liberal Party leader Johan Perhson wrote on X that "talk about confiscating and demolishing mosques is downright un-Swedish". Only Ebba Busch, leader of the Christian Democrats, was silent. Peter Wennblad, the chief leader writer of the centre right-wing Svenska Dagbladet newspaper, wrote scathingly that Åkesson had "chosen to damage our country".

Magnus Ranstorp, the associate professor at the Swedish Defence University who is Sweden's most high-profile anti-terrorism expert, told the Dagens Nyheter newspaper that Åkesson's statement was a threat to Sweden's national security. "This can contribute to worsening the security threat against Sweden and strengthens Sweden's image as anti-Islamic. We also haven't yet joined Nato yet and Erdogan may well take this up."

What did Åkesson say in his speech?...........................

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