We have the worst situation for democracy since the 1930s

The bourgeois have stopped keeping clean

Anders Lindberg

Published 2026-06-20 21.15

Aftonbladet's editorial page is independent social democratic.

 

Photo: Anders Wiklund/TT

One of the decisive battles for Swedish democracy took place just over 90 years ago within what is today the Moderates. In 1934, the right-wing leader Arvid Lindman broke with his own youth movement, the Swedish National Youth Union (SNU).

The  young right had developed in an anti-democraticand Nazi direction.

That Arvid Lindman would break with the emerging fascism was not obvious. Universal suffrage had only existed for a little over a decade. Within the nobility, the royal family and the officer corps there were still strong anti-democratic forces.

The Moderates had been formed in 1904 with the aim of preventing the breakthrough of democracy and the rise of the labor movement.

Yet Arvid Lindman stood there and put hit foot down.

Today's right wing is no Arvid Lindman. Ulf Kristersson's most important promise in this autumn's election is that the Sweden Democrats will get half of the ministerial posts if he wins. The development is part of a much broader trend.

Democracy in the world is in – diplomatic terms – a mess.
I meetJag Kevin Casas-Zamora, Secretary General of International IDEA.  It is an intergovernmental organization based in Stockholm, whose missionvars since 1995 has been to promote democracy in the world. In addition to Sweden, 33 states from all continents are members.

I meet Kevin Casas-Zamora, Secretary General of International IDEA. It is an intergovernmental organization based in Stockholm, whose mission since 1995 has been to promote democracy in the world. In addition to Sweden, 33 states from all continents are members.

– It is the most challenging situation for democracy, I would say, since the 1930s. We have not seen such strong headwinds since then. I mean in our lifetime. So it is a very serious concern. And it is a global concern, he says.

You can listen to the entire conversation on Aftonbladet's website or where podcasts are available.

- I think it's about a convergence of very, very complex factors that together create a kind of perfect storm - a development that we are now witnessing all over the world, says Kevin Casas-Zamora.

There are many driving forces behind this "perfect storm" such as polarization, increased inequality and disinformation. According to International IDEA's annual democracy report, a majority of the world's countries are now going in the wrong direction.

The development is also noticeable in Sweden.

– I would say that the polarization in the Swedish social debate is very high and also increasing. And it is something that is happening in many places around the world. But if I'm being completely honest with you, I wouldn't have expected to see it the way I have seen it in Sweden. It has actually surprised me, says Kevin Casas-Zamora. 

He describes Swedish debate with the English word "tribal", as tribal conflicts.

If I were to personally add one factor to the analysis, it is that the bourgeois parties seem to have completely stopped keeping a clean right. In this autumn's elections, for example, the Christian Democrats are fielding a number of abortion opponents. They speak of the right to abortion as a "culture of death".

Is anyone in the bourgeoisie reacting? No, silence reigns.

In the last election, the SD fielded a couple of hundred candidates with connections to Nazism and motorcycle gangs. As a thank you, the party is now being invited into the government. And the SD is constantly defended tooth and nail by right-wing opinion leaders despite an entire term of office filled with racist scandals.

We see a similar development in the US, where the Republicans have aligned themselves behind Donald Trump in the same way that the right here is aligning itself behind Jimmie Åkesson. And Trump's regime has become a kind of model country for right-wing populists everywhere.

– I would say that the state of democracy in the US is undoubtedly one of the most worrying factors for the situation of democracy globally, says Kevin Casas-Zamora.

Those who try to downplay developments in Sweden and defend the SD, such as the editorial page of Expressen, have a rather heavy burden of proof. They themselves are driving the polarization and division of Swedes into “us and them”.

The liberal think tank Timbro and the SD-affiliated Oikos have presented a plan in the report “Tidö 2.0 – New Start for Sweden” that combines economic neoliberalism with conservative nationalism. As the next step.

It is a purely authoritarian policy for culture, public service, migration and crime. They are attacking the unions' ability to represent their members and want to try to force the unions to elect Sweden Democrats to leading positions. They want to scrap support for public education, introduce market rents, fight the Tenants' Association, lower a lot of taxes, sell off a lot of state-owned companies, introduce fees for higher education, scrap gender research, sell wine at ICA, conduct a "review" of the crime of incitement against an ethnic group, deport a lot of people for various reasons and investigate limitations in democracy such as removing foreigners' right to vote in local elections and reducing the independence of the authorities.

Among many other things. None of this strengthens democracy.

Tidö 2.0 – New Start  for Sweden is a Swedish version of Donald Trumps Project 2025, which has become the engine of his second term as president. Anyone who want to know how things are going  can  benefit from following American domestic politics ahead of the mid- term elections this autumn. 

The bourgeoisie that 90 years ago put its foot down against a similar development in Sweden no longer exists. It has been replaced by the image of Simona Mohamsson hugging Jimmie Åkesson.

The voters do not seem overly pleased. This week the Liberals only got one percent in the DN/Ipsos June poll.

So perhaps the bourgeoisie still has something to learn from the right-wingers of the 1930s. Thanks to Arvid Lindman, fascism did not get a real parliamentary platform and power in Sweden.

After the election, perhaps the Moderates, the Christian and Liberals will sit down and think about whether it was not a pretty good strategy.