Record figures for Sweden Democrats

The Sifo poll, published in the Svenska Dagbladet and Göteborgs-Posten dailies on Sunday, showed that the Sweden Democrats have gained 1.5 percentage points since November.

By comparison, in August the party polled 6.2 per cent.

“The Sweden Democrats now have their strongest support among those aged 65 and over”, Sifo spokeswoman Toivo Sjörén told Svenska Dagbladet.

The new results come after a series of scandals sparked by the publication of video clips which showed Sweden Democrat MPs involved in a fight in central Stockholm. The politicians threatened a drunken man, used racist and sexist insults and armed themselves with iron bars.

Henrik Ekengren, a professor in political science, mentioned some factors which he believes currently benefit the Sweden Democrats: the Euro crisis, unemployment, the growing number of job termination notices and the fact that the Moderates and the Social Democrats are regarded as too similar.

Since August, support for the Social Democrats – the biggest party in Sweden – has dropped by two percent. For the other parties figures have remained more or less constant.

Neither the red-green opposition bloc nor the Alliance government would receive a majority vote if Swedes went to the polls today.

The Left-Green opposition drew 47.7 percent to the Alliance government’s 41.7 percent.

The latest figures show that the Sweden Democrats’ balance of power status has been strengthened.

Support for the party is the strongest in the southern regions of Skåne and Blekinge (18 percent) and the weakest in Stockholm (around four percent).

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