The electoral breakthrough of Nordic radical-right wing parties

What is the political identity and the degree of radicalism of the two Nordic radical-right parties in Finland and Sweden? From which parties have they gained their votes and members and besides their action in parliament, how have they gained influence and effected the focus of Swedish and Finnish politics? Read our two new reports written by the researchers Ann-Cathrine Jungar and Sanna Salo.

The success of the previously isolated Sweden Democrats (Sverigedemokraterna) in the national elections 2022, gave the party direct access to governmental decision-making in Sweden for the first time. The result didn´t happen overnight. With the parliamentary breakthrough and the rapid electoral growth of the Sweden Democrats since 2010, the mainstreaming of its narrative and policies among some of the other parliamentary parties and the acceptance of the SD as a legitimate party with governmental credibility has been established. The isolationist strategy, towards the Sweden Democrats, has definitively come to an end in 2022.

In Finland, the upcoming national elections will take place on April the 2nd 2023. It is still to early to predict the election results. However, at the last elections 2019 the Finns Party (Perussuomalaiset) turned out second biggest party and at the end of 2022, the party polls third biggest party with about 17 Percent.In the highly pragmatic Finnish political culture, the other parliamentary parties have broadly accepted the PS as a normal party and engaged in legislative cooperation with it.

Read our two new reports written by the researchers Ann-Cathrine Jungar and Sanna Salo.

Finland: The electoral breakthrough of the Finns Party

Sweden: Normalising the Pariah

Ann-Cathrine Jungar is an associate professor in political science at the Department of Social Sciences at Södertörn University in Stockholm. She has a PhD from the Department of Government at Uppsala University.

Sanna Salo is a Finnish political sociologist and an Academy of Finland post-doctoral fellow at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs.

Contact:

Josefin Fürst
josefin.furst(at)fes.de

Normalising the Pariah

Jungar, Ann-Cathrine

Normalising the Pariah

The Sweden Democrats path from isolation to government
Stockholm, 2022

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