The Sweden Democrats have moved forward in a series of opinion polls recently but in a new Sifo survey, published on Sunday in the Swedish newspapers Svenska Dagbladet and Göteborgs Posten, the party’s support remains virtually unchanged at 17.7 percent, compared to 17.8 percent last month.
Meanwhile the Left Party has seen a mini-surge in support to become the fourth largest party on 7.3 percent, up from 6.5 percent, the Feminist Initiative enjoyed small gains from 1.7 percent to 2.4 percent, and the governing Social Democrats also saw their backing rebound slightly from 26.3 percent to 27 percent.
The main opposition party, the centre-right Moderates, were the biggest losers, dropping to 22.8 percent from 24.5 percent.
“It is surprising that the Sweden Democrats’ support has not improved,” political scientist Ulf Bjereld told Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet.
“Many Sweden Democrat members had probably hoped for a surge when the refugee issue received so much attention as it’s their main issue,” Bjereld said, referring to the current European refugee crisis.
Meanwhile, the figures indicate that the Sweden Democrats are still the largest party among men in Sweden – one in four would vote for the Sweden Democrats if the election were today.
The Moderates and the Social Democrats would receive 22.8 and 22.4 percent of male voters' support, respectively.