Alternative for Sweden
Alternative for Sweden Alternativ för Sverige | ||
---|---|---|
County councils 0 / 1,597 | ||
Municipal councils | 0 / 12,780 | |
National Council | 3 / 251 | |
Diocese Councils | 3 / 841 | |
Website | ||
alternativforsverige | ||
Year | Pop. | ±% |
---|---|---|
2018 | 2,057 | — |
2019 | 1,742 | −15.3% |
2020 | 2,204 | +26.5% |
2021 | 2,726 | +23.7% |
2022 | 3,100 | +13.7% |
source[14] | — |
Alternative for Sweden (Swedish: Alternativ för Sverige, AFS) is a
AfS ran in the general elections of 2018 and 2022, but failed to enter the Riksdag. With 0.26% of the vote, AfS is the second largest party without representation in the Riksdag.[21] In the 2019 European Parliament election in Sweden, the party ran on an anti-EU platform, receiving 0.46% of the vote. In November 2020, AfS announced its intention to run in the 2021 election to the Church of Sweden council.[22] It won 1.26% of the votes, giving it three seats in the Church council.[23]
History
Background
In early April 2015, the Sweden Democrats (SD) accused its youth league, the
Following the initial expulsion of the youth wing's chairman and deputy chairman, the mother party launched its own leadership candidate to compete against Jessica Ohlson, who was considered an ally of Kasselstrand and Hahne and deemed too radical by the SD for a leadership position. The SD warned that the party would break all ties with SDU if Ohlson were to be elected chairman. On 12 September 2015, Ohlson defeated the party's preferred candidate for the SDU chairmanship, and the party shut down SDU's website and broke all relations with its youth wing. It then established a new youth organization, Ungsvenskarna (Young Swedes) and produced a timetable that every SD member who remained a member of SDU should leave the league or risk expulsion from the mother party. Ohlson herself was officially expelled alongside five other SDU members on 25 October, but continued to serve as chairman of SDU, which went on to become an independent organization.
Founding and defections
In early 2017,
Two Sweden Democrat members of the Riksdag, Olle Felten and Jeff Ahl, defected to the party later that month.[28] According to the rules of the Riksdag, Felten and Ahl are considered independent MP's, meaning that Alternative for Sweden is not officially represented in the parliament.[29] Mikael Jansson, former leader of the Sweden Democrats, also defected on 9 April, citing the mother party's recent lack of resistance to NATO as his main reason.[citation needed]
Before the 2018 elections, the party was one of the largest in terms of social media interactions and expected to enter the parliament after the elections, with leader Gustav Kasselstrand asking people on Twitter to prepare for "Sweden's biggest political earthquake in modern times". However, the party failed to enter parliament by a large margin, receiving just 0.31 out of the 4.0 percent needed to get past the
Since 2018
After the 2018 election, the party participated in the 2019 election for the European Parliament, but failed to gain a seat.
In March 2020, the party's deputy chairman and founding member William Hahne resigned from his position, after he had been revealed by Expressen to run a webshop selling surgical masks for a price 759% higher than other commercial sellers of surgical masks during the COVID-19 pandemic.[33]
Ideology and policies
This article is part of a series on |
Conservatism in Sweden |
---|
On its website, Alternative for Sweden lists three key issues:[34]
- Remigration of immigrants
- Democracy and politicians
- Law and order
It is critical of the current political establishment which it accuses of being naive and overly
Unlike the
AfS has been described as right-wing, far-right and right-wing populist by
Economic policies
Alternative for Sweden has stated in its program that the party wants to introduce flat tax and uniform VAT.
Foreign policies
Foreign relations
During a visit to Moscow in 2018, party leader Gustav Kasselstrand attended a conference to establish connections with other nationalist parties in Europe.[42] That same year, Mikael Jansson met with close contacts to president Bashar al-Assad during a visit to Syria.[43]
In July 2022, several representatives from Alternative for Sweden, including Anders Feymark, travelled to Hungary to meet officials from the Hungarian party Our Homeland Movement, a party described as a "sister party" to Alternative for Sweden. Representatives from Alternative for Germany and Forum for Democracy were also present.[44] Our Homeland Movement party leader László Toroczkai, as well as Alternative for Germany's Stefan Korte, both held individual speeches at Alternative for Sweden's election campaign meeting held in Rålambshovsparken in Stockholm on 6 August 2022.[45]
Social policies
Immigration
In March 2018, Jeff Ahl gave a speech in the Riksdag, stating that hundreds of thousands of people would be deported out of Sweden if Alternative for Sweden gained power.[46]
LGBT issues
Alternative for Sweden is supportive of a ban on same-sex adoption as well as same-sex marriage.[47] The party has described same-sex marriage as a "modern construction intended to commit violence against multi-thousand-year-old traditions".[48] Alternative for Sweden has accused Stockholm Pride of sexualizing minors.[49]
Party Leadership
Leaders
No. | Leader | Portrait | Entered office | Left office | Length of Leadership |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Gustav Kasselstrand | 5 March 2018 | Incumbent | 6 years and 13 days |
Deputy Leaders
No. | Leader | Portrait | Entered office | Left office | Length of Leadership |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | William Hahne | 5 March 2018 | 23 March 2020 | 2 years, 0 months and 18 days | |
2 | Mikael Jansson | 28 November 2020 | Incumbent | 3 years, 3 months and 19 days |
Election results
Riksdag
Election | Votes | % | Seats | +/- | Government |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
2018 | 20,290 | 0.31 (#10) | 0 / 349
|
New | Extra-parliamentary |
2022 | 16,646 | 0.26 (#10) | 0 / 349
|
0 | Extra-parliamentary |
European Parliament
Year | Votes | % | Rank | Seats | +/- | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2019[50] | 19,178 | 0.46 | #10 | 0 / 20
|
New | Extra-parliamentary |
Church of Sweden Council
Election | Votes | % | Seats | +/- | Government |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
2021[23] | 10,358 | 1.26 (#12) | 3 / 251
|
New | Opposition |
References
- ^ "Kraftig medlemstillväxt i Alternativ för Sverige – Över 3 400 medlemmar". alternativforsverige.se. Retrieved 5 February 2023.
- ^ Från Nordiska motståndsrörelsen till alternativhögern Archived 9 September 2020 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Rejab Karemi. "Alternativ för Sverige (AfS)" (PDF). diva-portal.org. Retrieved 31 March 2023.
- ^ a b "Far-right defections seen making Sweden's nationalists palatable". Bloomberg.com. Bloomberg. 9 April 2018.
- ^ a b "Tidigare partiledare lämnar SD – värvas av Alternativ för Sverige". Dagens Nyheter. 9 April 2018. Retrieved 9 April 2018.
- ^ a b c "Riksdagsledamot utesluts ur SD för "samröre med rasister"". Dagens Nyheter. 15 March 2018. Retrieved 9 April 2018.
- ^
- "Familjepolitik". alternativforsverige.se (in Swedish). Retrieved 1 September 2022.
- "Svenska kyrkan och äktenskapet". tatillbakakyrkan.nu (in Swedish). Retrieved 1 September 2022.
- "Högerextremt parti håller möte intill Prideparaden". Omni (in Swedish). Retrieved 1 September 2022.
- ^ a b "Avhoppen till Alternativ för Sverige". Svenska Dagbladet (in Swedish). Retrieved 9 April 2018.
- ^ "Politisk vilde går till högerpopulistiskt parti". helagotland.se. Retrieved 31 March 2023.
- ^ Colliver, Chloe; Pomerantsev, Peter; Applebaum, Anne; Birdwell, Jonathan (2018). Smearing Sweden: International Influence Campaigns in the 2018 General Election (PDF). London: Institute for Strategic Dialogue.
- ^ "AFS: "Islam hör inte hemma i Sverige!"".
- ^ "UTUR website". Archived from the original on 8 September 2021. Retrieved 8 September 2021.
- S2CID 225880285.