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The Eurosceptic party, which has seen its popularity surge in recent months, shot ahead of its political opponents with a record 27.2 per cent saying they would vote the Sweden Democrats, according to figures from News Today / Senti. Speaking exclusively to Express.co.uk Mattias Karlsson, the group leader in the Swedish Parliament, said euroscepticism among Swedes was growing because people were starting to their state’s sovereignty was being compromised. He said: “I think Sweden is becoming more eurosceptic because we have seen the problems with the Euro and all the problems facing the European Union in general and people are becoming more and more aware that we are not governing our own country anymore. “I think in the beginning we saw it as a fun thing. We could cross borders however you wanted, go shopping and study in other countries.

EXPRESS • GETTY The Sweden Democrats, which wants the liberal country out of the EU, is leading the polls

“Now people are also experiencing the backside of this, organised crime, the fact that Sweden is paying very large amounts of money every year to the European Union and not getting very much back.” Mr Karlsson added Brexit had opened the door for Sweden to follow it out of the bloc, the British people have shown it is possible to leave Brussels. “I think the eurosceptic movement will increase and I think that Brexit had a very big impact on this,” the right-wing politician said. “People are starting to believe it is really possible to leave the European Union.” Mr Karlsson added: “The position of my party is we want a Swexit as soon as possible because we feel our membership of the European Union is hurting us.

People are starting to believe it is really possible to leave the European Union Mattias Karlsson

“It’s hurting our stability financially, culturally, it’s making our country less safe and less protected against organised crime. We would like to see Swexit as soon as possible.” In March, Sweden’s prime minister Stefan Löfven warned the bloc it should not try and plug the financial gap created by Brexit with funds from other member states. Taking a swipe at the EU, the Social Democrats leader said the expenditure ceiling of one per cent GDP should remain once Britain exits the bloc, meaning the budget would be reduced by around 15 per cent. Mr Karlsson echoed the warning but said a better way to handle the situation would be to dissolve the bloc completely.

These are the most eurosceptic countries Fri, February 24, 2017 Rising disenchantment with the dealings of EU is not just confined to the UK. Play slideshow 1 of 8

“An even better solution would be that we all leave the European Union and start to cooperate with each other, make bilateral agreements and just get along as friends and neighbours,” he said. I think that is a better solution than keeping this overstate union - this monster state.” The Sweden Democrat politician also hit out against the EU for trying to stick the UK with a bad deal as he branded the bloc’s Brexit threats “disgusting”. He said: “It’s disgusting actually. I think we need Britain - all the European countries need Britain. “We are cousins in a cultural sense, we have a lot of common interests and the British people have democratically chosen this path to leave the European Union.