Sweden's Anti-Immigration Party Hits 20 Percent in Major Poll

A new poll released by Statistics Sweden shows the anti-immigration Sweden Democrats (SD) party now up to 20 percent support among the public, placing it just behind the Moderate Party (M; 23.5 percent) and the Social Democrats (S; 27.6 percent). Support for the Sweden Democrats is up 7 percent compared with the Riksdag election in 2014 and almost 6 percent since the last poll taken in May of this year. All other parties either lost support or were unchanged over these time frames.

Sweden Democrats party secretary Richard Jomshof expressed his thoughts about the polling: I think we have the potential to become the largest party. I am absolutely convinced that the party has benefited from the [refugee] situation that has arisen in recent months, even if we do not acknowledge the situation. The 190,000 people seeking asylum in Sweden during 2015 alone represents two percent of the country's entire population, never mind the additional contributions from refugees in prior years. The Sweden Democrats have now joined the long list of nationalist parties in Europe on the rise, including (with the latest popular support polling/election data in parentheses) the Law and Justice Party in Poland (38 percent), the Freedom Party of Austria (33 percent), the National Front in France (upwards of ~30 percent or higher depending on region), the Party for Freedom in the Netherlands (29 percent), the Swiss People's Party (29 percent), the Danish People's Party (21 percent), the New Flemish Alliance in Belgium (20 percent), Jobbik in Hungary (20 percent), and the United Kingdom Independence Party (16 percent).