After elections, Sweden joins Europe's move to right over migration backlash

STOCKHOLM:

Sweden

has become the latest European country to have its political order shaken by a backlash against large-scale

immigration

, with voters giving a boost to a far right party and weakening the more established ones.


With nearly all votes counted on Monday, the ruling centre-left

Social Democrats

and Greens and their Left Party parliamentary ally had 40.6% of the vote, while the opposition centre-right Alliance was on 40.3%. That translates into a single-seat advantage in the 349-member Riksdag.

The Sweden Democrats, which has roots in a

neo-Nazi movement

but has worked to soften its image, won 17.6%, up from 13% in 2014, for a third place finish. That showing is not strong enough for it to lead a government, but it reflects how deeply that Sweden, famous for its progressive policies, is being transformed by migration. It was the biggest gain of any party and in line with conventional opinion polls but fell short of the 20-30% their leader Jimmie Akesson had predicted. Akesson was adamant his party holds the balance of power. "We won't participate in letting through a government which doesn't give us influence," he told TV4.

Unless parties on the centre-left and centre-right break ranks with their blocs, it is likely to be impossible to form a stable government without some kind of support from the Sweden Democrats, who want the country to leave the EU and freeze immigration.

Sunday's election was the first since Sweden, with a population of 10 million, took in a record 163,000 migrants in 2015 - the highest per capita of any European country. Since 2015, the center-left government has sharply restricted immigration, but many Swedes complain that society cannot cope with integrating so many newcomers, many of them Muslims from Africa and the West Asia.

The election came after populist and anti-migrant parties made significant political gains in Germany, Austria and Italy since 2015 - the other countries that have shouldered the heaviest burden of accommodating those fleeing conflict or simply searching for a better life elsewhere.