Good morning. Last night, a nail biting election in Sweden that went down to the last postal votes finally reached its conclusion: the Social Democrat prime minister, Magdalena Andersson, conceded defeat to a conservative bloc including the far-right Sweden Democrats (SD). Jimmie Akesson (above), the SD’s leader, said it was time to “make Sweden good again”.
It was no landslide victory, the right wing coalition only won a majority of three out of 349 seats. And centre-right parties have said that the SD will not be given ministerial power. But the fact remains that a radical party which emerged from violent neo-Nazi groups in the 1980s is now the second-biggest grouping in Sweden’s parliament, and the largest on the right, with more than 20% of the vote.
