Sweden's Pro-Islamic Immigrant Party Takes Credit for 'Overthrowing' Ruling Social Democrats

Sweden's highly contested election, in which the nation's two rival blocs ended up divided only by a small margin, saw the ruling Social Democrats concede defeat and is likely to usher in a new coalition.

Swedish politician Mikail Yuksel has claimed that his pro-Islamic immigrant Nuance party went down in history as the party that “overthrew” the country's Social Democrat government.

In the tightly contested recent general election, the newly-formed Nuance party received 28,352 votes, which could have otherwise secured a “red-green” majority and ensured the Social Democrats' continued grip on power.

In an interview with Turkey's Anadolu Agency, Turkish-born Yuksel, a former member of the Center Party who was expelled for his association with the Turkish nationalist organization Gray Wolves, stressed that the Social Democrats have long viewed Muslim areas as a voting base. Nevertheless, he argued that the Social Democrats, who ruled Sweden for most of the 20th century and have been in power since 2014, “failed” their Muslim voters. Among others, he ventured, this was done by “kidnapping” their children (a reference to the practice of forcibly taking care of children at risk of honor-related violence or oppression at home by the country's social services, which disproportionately targets immigrants), allowing the burning of the Quran as freedom of expression (a reference to Danish-Swedish anti-immigration politician Rasmus Paludan's demonstrations across the country), and closing Muslim schools.

“In return, Muslim voters punished the Social Democrats”, Yuksel told Anadolu Agency.

In an interview with the Swedish daily Expressen, Yuksel said that election showed that the Social Democrats' “anti-Islamic” policy didn't sit well with inhabitants of Muslim-heavy districts he called their “nuclear voters”.

Nuance ran on a platform of restricting freedom of expression by introducing a ban on Quran burning and other acts it sees as anti-Muslim, as well as ensuring a special status for Muslims and Afroswedes in Sweden's constitution, similar to that afforded Jews, Roma and Sami.

Swedish broadcaster SVT noted that the Social Democrats lost votes in urban areas of Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmö with a substantial Muslim population. Dagens Nyheter, one of Sweden's leading dailies, admitted that that the unexpectedly strong performance of Nuance may have cost the Social Democrats the vote. Svante Linusson, a professor of mathematics at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) emphasized that the Social Democrats lost by just 26,500 votes — fewer than the newcomers to Sweden's political stage amassed.

Right now, the right-wing “blue” bloc led by the the liberal-conservative Moderates is attempting to form a coalition government with the Christian Democrats, with support of the the Liberals and the national-conservative Sweden Democrats, who had their best showing in history at 20.5 percent. However, despite strong election performances, the party is yet to produce its first cabinet minister, as other Swedish parties have previously formed a protective fence around the Sweden Democrats, effectively barring them from power.