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Social Democrats unharmed by IT scandal, polls suggest

The Sweden Democrats are losing support with just over a year to go to Sweden's next general election, while the ruling Social Democrats may be gaining ground, according to new polls.

Published: 10 August 2017 07:25 CEST
Updated: 10 August 2017 09:48 CEST
Social Democrats unharmed by IT scandal, polls suggest
Stefan Löfven, centre, with ministers Peter Hultqvist and Annika Strandhäll. Photo: Erik Simander/TT

The Sweden Democrat party, which is known for its anti-immigration platform, drops by 3.5 percentage points in the latest election poll by Demoskop on behalf of the Expressen tabloid.

That puts support for the party at 16.6 percent, which means it also loses its place as the second-biggest party in the polls to the centre-right Moderates, whose support grows to 17.2 percent.

However, another poll also released on Thursday still has the Sweden Democrats as the second-largest party, with both it and the Moderates seeing a slight drop (more information below).

The Social Democrats, the main party in the centre-left government coalition with the Greens, meanwhile sees its support grow from 27 percent in the latest Demoskop poll to 28.4 percent.

That is despite a recent government crisis sparked by a major data leak at the Swedish Transport Agency when key information was made available to IT workers in other countries who had not gone through the usual security clearance checks. Prime Minister Stefan Löfven was forced to let two government ministers go in response to the threat of an opposition-led no-confidence vote.

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Sweden Democrat leader Jimmie Åkesson. Photo: Janerik Henriksson/TT

The crisis is not over yet as the opposition still threatens to call a vote of no confidence after the summer recess. However, the Demoskop poll was carried out after the peak of the crisis, which appears to indicate that the Social Democrats have so far survived the fallout unscathed in the eyes of voters.

The other smaller parties all show a slight increase, with the Centre Party now at 12.9 percent, the Greens at 4.4 percent, the Liberals at 6.4 percent and the Christian Democrats at 4.0 percent.

Pollsters quizzed 1,250 randomly selected voters about their party preference between August 1st and 8th. The Sweden Democrats' drop is the only change that is outside the margin of error.

Another survey by Novus on behalf of public broadcaster SVT, interviewing 2,000 people between July 31st and August 6th, still has the Sweden Democrats as the second-largest party with 18.7 percent support (down 1.3 percentage points), ahead of the Moderates at 15.2 percent (down 0.7 percentage points).

The Novus poll also suggests strengthened support for the Social Democrats at 29.3 percent (up 2.0 percentage points). All changes since their previous poll at the end of May are within the margin of error.

The Green Party is below 4 percent in both the Novus and the Demoskop poll, which means it would not get any seats in parliament if an election were held today.

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POLITICS

‘Very little debate’ on consequences of Sweden’s crime and migration clampdown

Sweden’s political leaders are putting the population’s well-being at risk by moving the country in a more authoritarian direction, according to a recent report.

Published: 29 April 2024 08:56 CEST
'Very little debate' on consequences of Sweden's crime and migration clampdown

The Liberties Rule of Law report shows Sweden backsliding across more areas than any other of the 19 European Union member states monitored, fuelling concerns that the country risks breaching its international human rights obligations, the report says.

“We’ve seen this regression in other countries for a number of years, such as Poland and Hungary, but now we see it also in countries like Sweden,” says John Stauffer, legal director of the human rights organisation Civil Rights Defenders, which co-authored the Swedish section of the report.

The report, compiled by independent civil liberties groups, examines six common challenges facing European Union member states.

Sweden is shown to be regressing in five of these areas: the justice system, media environment, checks and balances, enabling framework for civil society and systemic human rights issues.

The only area where Sweden has not regressed since 2022 is in its anti-corruption framework, where there has been no movement in either a positive or negative direction.

Source: Liberties Rule of Law report

As politicians scramble to combat an escalation in gang crime, laws are being rushed through with too little consideration for basic rights, according to Civil Rights Defenders.

Stauffer cites Sweden’s new stop-and-search zones as a case in point. From April 25th, police in Sweden can temporarily declare any area a “security zone” if there is deemed to be a risk of shootings or explosive attacks stemming from gang conflicts.

Once an area has received this designation, police will be able to search people and cars in the area without any concrete suspicion.

“This is definitely a piece of legislation where we see that it’s problematic from a human rights perspective,” says Stauffer, adding that it “will result in ethnic profiling and discrimination”.

Civil Rights Defenders sought to prevent the new law and will try to challenge it in the courts once it comes into force, Stauffer tells The Local in an interview for the Sweden in Focus Extra podcast. 

He also notes that victims of racial discrimination at the hands of the Swedish authorities had very little chance of getting a fair hearing as actions by the police or judiciary are “not even covered by the Discrimination Act”.

READ ALSO: ‘Civil rights groups in Sweden can fight this government’s repressive proposals’

Stauffer also expresses concerns that an ongoing migration clampdown risks splitting Sweden into a sort of A and B team, where “the government limits access to rights based on your legal basis for being in the country”.

The report says the government’s migration policies take a “divisive ‘us vs them’ approach, which threatens to increase rather than reduce existing social inequalities and exclude certain groups from becoming part of society”.

Proposals such as the introduction of a requirement for civil servants to report undocumented migrants to the authorities would increase societal mistrust and ultimately weaken the rule of law in Sweden, the report says.

The lack of opposition to the kind of surveillance measures that might previously have sparked an outcry is a major concern, says Stauffer.

Politicians’ consistent depiction of Sweden as a country in crisis “affects the public and creates support for these harsh measures”, says Stauffer. “And there is very little talk and debate about the negative consequences.”

Hear John Stauffer from Civil Rights Defender discuss the Liberties Rule of Law report in the The Local’s Sweden in Focus Extra podcast for Membership+ subscribers.

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