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SWEDEN DEMOCRATS

Sweden Democrats fail to keep local politicians

One in six Sweden Democrat politicians at the municipal level has abandoned the party since the last elections, a new review has shown.

Sweden Democrats fail to keep local politicians
Almedalen 2013

The Sweden Democrats have lost power over 114 of their more than 600 politicians at municipal level across Sweden, with half of the absconding local lawmakers having gone rogue.

Sixty of the 114 politicians who have left the party since the 2010 elections have maintained their elected position, but now work as independents, the review by anti-racism magazine Expo showed this week.

Some 54 politicians have simply quit politics all together.

The drop-out rate does not, however, worry the party’s central leadership.

“I won’t deny that this is a problem, but it’s getting better,” Sweden Democrat press secretary Linus Bylund told Expo.

“This is a teething problem that affects all political parties in their infancy.”

The Sweden Democrats entered parliament for the first time in 2010, with various opinion polls showing their voter support waxing and waning in the intervening years.

In April, a YouGov poll found that the Sweden Democrats would nab 16 percent of the vote in regional elections in the south of Sweden if elections had been held at that time.

Later that month, however, a second opinion poll found that voter support for the Sweden Democrats had tumbled by a third in just a few months.

Swedes will next go to the polls in national elections in the autumn of 2014.

TT/The Local/at

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