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Mr Akesson told Sveriges Radio: “The EU is not the way to cooperate in Europe. “My position is that we should renegotiate the terms of our EU membership and then the people should have the final say.” This echoes the position of two prominent Swedish Democrat MEPs, Kristina Winberg and Peter Lundgren, who published a joint opinion piece this week advocating an EU exit. They said: “The Swedish Democrats want to leave the European Union.

“We do not want to have some unelected EU Commission, which together with the court and the parliament can bulldoze over member states even if they say ‘no’ the whole say.” A recent poll put the Swedish Democrats on 19.1 percent of the vote, an increase on the 12.9 percent they received in 2014. This means they would retain their position as the third largest party in the Swedish Parliament after the vote in September. However the Swedish Democrats are unlikely to end up in government as Sweden’s centre-right and centre-left parties have ruled out forming a coalition with what they deem a far-right party.

A recent poll put the Swedish Democrats on 19.1 percent of the vote

Mr Akesson agreed his party is unlikely to form part of the next government, telling Sveriges Radio: “I don’t believe that I’m going to be sitting in the government after the election.” However he predicted they would have a “significant influence”. The centre-left Social Democrats, who are currently governing Sweden in coalition with the Green Party, are polling first on 26 percent.

During the 2015 refugee crisis Sweden took in a record 163,000 asylum seekers, however this proved controversial, and led to a significant increase in support for the Swedish Democrats. The Swedish Democrats were until recently polling in second place, triggering a national debate in Sweden about integration, immigration and political radicalism. The Swedish Democrats, which were formed in 1988, has its ideological roots in neo-fascism and was initially part of the Swedish white nationalist scene.

During the 2015 refugee crisis Sweden took in a record 163,000 asylum seekers