Something Rotten In The State Of...Sweden

As expected, Swedish elections on Sunday have resulted in 40% of the seats going to the current Social Democrats coalition, 40% going to the opposition center-right alliance, and nearly 18% of seats going to the flat-out neo-Nazi Sweden Democrats, who now may very well get to decide who runs the country, and how.

With almost all districts having reported, the ruling center-left Social Democrats and Greens and their Left Party parliamentary allies had 40.6 percent of the vote, while the opposition center-right Alliance was at 40.3 percent.

That gave the center-left 144 seats in the 349-seat parliament against 142 for the Alliance, suggesting weeks of uncertainty before a workable government can be formed.

The Sweden Democrats, a party with roots in the white supremacist fringe, won 17.6 percent and 63 seats, up from 12.9 percent and 49 seats in the last election four years ago, the biggest gain by any party in Sweden’s parliament, the Riksdag.

The results were largely in line with the conventional opinion polls tracked by Reuters in the run-up to the election but well below some online surveys that had predicted the Sweden Democrats could become the largest party.

While the results also fell short of leader Jimmie Akesson’s predictions of 20 percent of the vote or more, he told a party rally it was nevertheless the winner of the election.

“We will gain huge influence over what happens in Sweden during the coming weeks, months and years,” Akesson told party colleagues.

Akesson hopes his party, which wants Sweden to leave the European Union and freeze immigration, can play a decisive role in negotiations over forming a government.

He called on Ulf Kristersson, the center-right Alliance’s candidate for the premiership, to choose between seeking support from the Sweden Democrats for an Alliance government or to accept another four years of Social Democrat Prime Minister Stefan Lofven.

The problem is now that the neo-Nazis in Sweden have become too powerful to ignore politically.  Instead of dealing with them, they're now in a position to greatly influence Sweden's next government, and they are only growing more powerful.

I'd find fault with Sweden, except that here in the US, we have our own "center-right coalition with neo-Nazis for political expedience party" and they currently control the federal government and a nearly two-thirds majority of the states.

Sweden is just following our shameful example, after all.