What’s happening in Sweden (2018)

The election in Sweden got a lot attention in Norway as well. So on the 30th of August with ten days to go before the election, I visited Falkenberg in the south as a reporter for Nettavisen. Jimmie Åkesson, the leader of the populist and anti-immigration party the Sweden Democrats (Sverigedemokraterna), was there - followed by police and bodyguards. He held one of his 50-something town square meetings during the campaign, drawing a big crowd and a sore throat. This was one of my pictures from that job. One of the stories from that day by the way was about a tomato that was thrown towards Åkesson, a tomato he picked up and tasted before continuing his speech.

The campaign poster in the photo reads «Go Jimmie!» The message, though from the other parties in the Swedish parliament so far have been more like No Jimmie! They have been refusing to cooperate with a party that analysts say have fed on fear and unhealthy nationalism. Since they crossed the 4 % threshold and won parliamentary representation in 2010, they have been isolated. We don’t know how this will play out yet and how Sweden will cope with its right-wing party in the parliament now. We don’t know who will form a government either. What we do know is that no party or coalition has the majority alone in the new parliament. The dominant Social Democrats took 28.3 % of the votes and still is the biggest, followed by the liberal-conservative party Moderaterna (19.8 %).

Jimmie Åkesson and his Sweden Democrats won 17.5 %. That is 1.1 million Swedes. A total of 6,5 million got out and voted in an election with a big turnout. In other words, 82.5 % of the Swedes said no to Jimmie. The Sweden Democrats didn’t win enough votes to be the second largest of the parties as some polls suggested. They continue to be the third largest political party. But they got a big boost going up 4.7 points from the 2014 election and seems more eager than ever to have a say. As a journalist, I continue to monitor our neighbour country and how they deal with a complicated political situation. In Falkenberg I got to talk with an MP from the Social Democrats, then with Åkesson about the campaign and his preferred coalition an with a woman that was there under her umbrella to listen to his speech. Her concern was a more political polarized Sweden.

Location: Falkenberg, Sweden, August 2018

Shot with Fujifilm X-E2
XF 35.0 mm f/1.4 lens 1/125 f8 400 iso