{"id":180713,"date":"2018-09-09T23:38:46","date_gmt":"2018-09-10T03:38:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=180713"},"modified":"2018-09-09T23:38:46","modified_gmt":"2018-09-10T03:38:46","slug":"exit-poll-projects-mixed-voter-message-sweden-election","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/09\/09\/exit-poll-projects-mixed-voter-message-sweden-election\/","title":{"rendered":"Exit poll projects mixed voter message in Sweden election"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
\u201cIt’s also about decency, about a decent democracy … and not letting the Sweden Democrats, an extremist party, a racist party, get any influence in the government.\u201d (File Photo By Politikerveckan Almedalen\/Wikimedia, CC BY-SA 4.0<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

STOCKHOLM \u2014 An exit poll indicated that Sweden’s first general election since the Scandinavian country accepted a significant number of asylum-seekers was likely to have the centre-left party governing now as its winner, but an anti-immigrant party with white supremacist roots placing second in balloting Sunday.<\/p>\n

Public broadcaster SVT said immediately after polls closed that its exit poll indicated the ruling Social Democrats would remain Sweden’s largest party, but making its worst-ever showing with 26.2 per cent of the vote.<\/p>\n

The exit poll projected the far-right Sweden Democrats would get 19.2 per cent of Sunday’s vote after Swedes had the opportunity to make their views on immigration known at polling places.<\/p>\n

The Swedish government in 2015 allowed 163,000 migrants into the country with a population of 10 million. The number was far lower than the asylum-seekers Germany accepted that year, but the highest per capita of any European nation.<\/p>\n

Ahead of the election, promising prospects for the Sweden Democrats had many Swedes worried about an erosion of the humanitarian values that have long been a foundation of their country’s identity.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis election is a referendum about our welfare,\u201d Prime Minister Stefan Lofven said. \u201cIt’s also about decency, about a decent democracy … and not letting the Sweden Democrats, an extremist party, a racist party, get any influence in the government.\u201d<\/p>\n

About 7.5 million voters were eligible to choose the next members of the 349-seat Riksdag, or parliament. About 6,300 candidates sought the four-year terms. It was unlikely any single party would secure a majority of 175 seats.<\/p>\n

The latest opinion poll conducted by pollster Novus for public broadcaster SVT suggested Friday that Lofven’s ruling Social Democrats would lose a substantial number of seats, but emerge with about one-fourth of the vote \u2014 the most support predicted for any party. The party has dominated Swedish politics in the post-World War II era.<\/p>\n

The Sweden Democrats \u2014 led by Jimmie Akesson \u2014 has worked to soften its neo-Nazi image while helping to break down longstanding taboos on what Swedes could say openly about immigration and integration without being shunned as racists.<\/p>\n

During a heated debate among party leaders Friday, Akesson caused a stir by blaming migrants for the difficulties they often have in finding employment and not adjusting to Sweden.<\/p>\n

The broadcaster that aired the televised debate, SVT, afterward called his remarks degrading and against the democratic mandate of public broadcasting.<\/p>\n

Akesson responded that state television shouldn’t take sides, and later announced that he wouldn’t take part in any of SVT’s election programs Sunday.<\/p>\n

At the party’s rally on Saturday, he strongly criticized Lofven’s government for \u201cprioritizing\u201d the cause of immigrants over the needs of citizens.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis government we have had now . they have prioritised, during these four years, asylum-seekers,\u201d Akesson said, giving an exhaustive list of things he says the government has failed to do for Swedish society because of migrants.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

STOCKHOLM \u2014 An exit poll indicated that Sweden’s first general election since the Scandinavian country accepted a significant number of …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":180716,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-180713","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-w","mauthors-pietro-decristofaro","mauthors-jan-olsen","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180713","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=180713"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180713\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/180716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=180713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=180713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=180713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}