In the Communist Manifesto, Karl Marx wrote that a “spectre” was haunting Europe — “the spectre of communism.” Many of Marx’s intellectual descendants have enjoyed great political power across the continent of Europe.
But now, there is a rising tide of discontent in opposition to the anti-Christian, anti-national sovereignty, and anti-free market biases held by the cultural elites, as country after country has seen the emergence of right-wing political parties that are garnering more and more political support — even in “socialist” Sweden.
The Sweden Democrats Party — a party of the Right — is now the second-largest political party in Sweden, the country that has long been held up as the model for democratic socialists in Europe, Canada, and the United States. Instead of pandering to the latest leftist cause, the Sweden Democrats Party is rejecting much of their secular and socialistic agenda.
For example, in Solvesborg, the home town of the party’s leader, Jimmie Akesson, the party has decided they will halt the flying of the rainbow flag once a year to celebrate the “gay pride” festival held in Stockholm (the national capital city). Additionally, it will no longer buy “provocative, challenging” public art, and has even banned children from wearing Islamic headdress. (Akesson’s fiancé, Louis Erixon, is the city’s mayor).
Predictably, the Left is outraged. Gitte Orskou, who directs Stockholm’s principal modern art gallery — Moderna Museet, compared the new art policy to the one used in 1930s Germany, “where that which was not approved by the political establishment was called ‘degenerate art.’” Sofia Lenninger, the head of Solvesborg’s own culture department, complained to the Telegraph, “I think it makes everything a bit boring, actually. What’s the point, if you have to be aware of being provocative when dealing with art?” She was fired.
But apparently the public likes the party’s policy toward art and other matters, such as immigration. In a recent poll by Ipsos and Demoskop, the leading political party, the Social Democrats, have seen their lead shrink to the point that Sweden Democrats are now at less than one percent behind them. Although the Sweden Democrats finished third in the September election, with 17.5 percent, they have been rising in the polls since, now pulling in 22.9 percent.
Akesson has been working to grow his party for 14 years, and is on the verge of leading a party that is ready to actually take power. “The other big opposition parties have followed us on the big issues — immigration, crime, energy politics — and from that point of view it is me who is the leader of the opposition,” Akesson told Aftonbladet newspaper.
Akesson’s bold assertion has some substantive evidence. He recently met with Ebba Busch-Thor, the leader of the Christian Democrats, generating speculation that two parties could eventually form a coalition government.
In the past few years, “right-wing” parties have gained across Europe, in nations including Great Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Hungary, and Poland. While the secularistic and socialistic elites have pushed for open immigration and the like, those nations’ citizens have begun to vote in increasing numbers for political parties that will restore their nations’ sovereignty, and put a halt to the flood of immigration and the pandering to anti-Christian groups such as the “gay pride” movement.
In response, the elites have denounced these popular movements as “far right” and “fascist,” even comparing politicians such as Marine Le Pen in France to Adolf Hitler. But, of course, Hitler was not a man of the Right, but of the Left, as he was the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party. But this tendency to dismiss these parties as “fascistic” or “Nazi” may not work. A similar strategy has been used in an unsuccessful attempt to destroy President Donald Trump, even to calling his supporters such things as a “basketful of deplorables,” or in calling opposition to the authoritarian policies of the European Union “far right.”
When I was at the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland, a couple of liberal English reporters told me that Brexit would not stop the increased regulation of the daily lives of members of the British public. They said this push for one government for all of Europe, with heavy economic and social regulation was inevitable.
With the right-wing revolt now spreading to Sweden, perhaps not.
Image: Logo of the Sweden Democrat Party
Steve Byas is a university instructor in history and author of History’s Greatest Libels. He can be contacted at [email protected].
