There is an expression in Swedish, “to be let into the warmth” – meaning to be welcomed into the fold. In a country shaped by long, dark winters, the image speaks for itself.A decade ago, the Sweden Democrats (SD), a far-right anti-immigration party with roots in Sweden’s neo-Nazi movement, were firmly shut out in the cold.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of listBut after the 2018 general election, a political deadlock prompted right-wing parties to rethink their alliances – and their principles.Today, SD is Sweden’s second-largest party, providing the parliamentary support that keeps the current government in power. It is a party once shunned by every major political force, now far into the warmth.From skinheads to suitsSD were founded in the 1980s by Nazi sympathisers and born out of the far-right, skinhead movement “Keep Sweden Swedish”.Its first auditor, Gustaf Ekstrom, was a veteran of the armed combat branch of the SS, a key organisation of Nazi Germany, and other executive members had belonged to violent far-right movements.After the 1990s, SD attempted to “clean up their act” in order to escape being seen as neo-Nazis, Morgan Finnsio, a Swedish researcher who studies far-right movements at the Expo Foundation, told Al Jazeera. Members and supporters of the far-right SD react to the results of the exit polls at their party election centre on September …
