The Sweden Democrats have successfully played off valid general concerns over uncontrolled immigration and crumbling public welfare to pierce the fortress of liberal values in Sweden, political analyst Charles Ortel told RT.

A combination of the “bad state of the immigration influx” and the “violence” associated with refugees, in addition to “unreported and under-reported” gang-related crime rates have contributed to loss of confidence for the ruling Social Democrats in Sweden, whose leader Stefan Lofven has struggled to maintain the quality of living for an average man, the analyst said.

While Sunday’s election failed to secure “a clear break with the past,” the strong results shown by the Sweden Democrats (SD) signified the “rejection of the current leadership,” Ortel believes.

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“Swedes are waking up to the first glimmer of hope,” he said. “I think it has passed a tipping point. And I think we are going to have to be watching Sweden not simply in this coming week, but months and years ahead. It’s going to change either much for the better or much for the worse.

“This is a major-league referendum, not purely about migration but I think also about globalization... Globalization has helped some few Swedish companies but it really hasn't helped the average Swedish worker,” the analyst added.

Swedish voters, Ortel believes, also responded to the overall trend in the European elections characterized by the rise of the right and the decline of traditional social-democratic parties. While Lofven has called the Sweden Democrats “a neo-fascist single-issue” party, the analyst believes the SD image is “unfairly painted” by the mainstream press.

“People who are not familiar with Sweden need to understand that from an American perspective, even Sweden Democrats is a left-leaning economic policy,” Ortel told RT, noting that the party favors a welfare state and advocates socialist economic policies. “But they have been raising valid concerns about the state of unvetted immigrants, the crime sprees, the terror attacks, and the wisdom of continuing this type of immigration policy.”

Sweden has accepted more migrants per capita than any other European Union member state, welcoming some 163,000 asylum seekers to the country in 2015, immediately polarizing the voters. In addition, lethal violence involving firearms has also increased between warring criminal gangs. Records released by Swedish police in December 2017 reveal there were a total of 306 shooting incidents last year, resulting in 41 deaths. The majority of the fatal incidents occurred in the capital Stockholm, often in migrant dominated communities.

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