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Who are typical supporters of the Swedish far right party - Sweden Democrats?

Sunday, 09 December 2012
The Swedish far right party, Sweden Democrats (SD) has been on top of the news recently for two main issues. One, that the party is gaining popularity from voters and the second, is that party top brasses have been involved in open violence. But the question has been asked as who are the real supporters of this xenophobic party. A new study seems to have given a better clue as the type of people who make a typical far right party supporter.

Unskilled men in rural areas are overrepresented among the members and supporters of Sweden's far right party, Sweden Democrats, a new study commissioned by the Swedish statistic office, Statistic Sweden or SCB show. But the contrast is show with highly educated women in Stockholm who have shied away from Jimmie Åkesson, the leader of the party.

Sweden Democrats has risen by 2.5 percentage points  in opinion polls since May and is now supported by 7.9 percent of voters  according to SCB's large voter survey that was presented on Wednesday. The party has taken voters from both the Social Democrats and the Conservatives Moderates.

Analyst say the two main political party of the country have focused more on the affluent part of the population while the Sweden Democrats have been able to understand this and move into the weaker and seemingly ignored part of the community. 

According to SCB's survey,  men are significantly more positive about the Sweden Democrats than women. In total, 8.1 percent of men say they would vote for SD if there were an election today. The corresponding figure for women remains 3.1 percent.
Sweden-democrats-Jimmie-Åkesson
Above Sweden Democrat leader, Jimme Åkesson celebrate victory in last general election Img,/ Granscole file)
If women were to decide, the party will fall according to some political scientists and the reason for this is that women are generally more tolerant in matters relating to refugees and immigration sentiment and this is the core policy of the Sweden Democrats.

Younger people are more inclined to the SD than middle-aged people, the survey shows. The largest support, 7.0 percent, is found in the age group 65 - 74 years. While support is the lowest, 3.8 percent, among the oldest voters over 75.

Support for the Sweden Democrats vary widely in the country, according to Statistics Sweden's survey. Voters in the leader, Jimmie Åkesson's home county of Blekinge and Skåne (except Greater Malmö) is most sympathetic to the party. If they were to decide, SD would be Sweden's third largest party with 10.6 percent of votes. Even in northern central Sweden (Värmland, Dalarna and Gävleborg) SD has a great support of 8.1 percent.

Considerably there is more scepticism of the party in Stockholm, thus if they were to decide, they party would go home with support a modest 2.2 percent.

The survey also shows that support for SD is generally higher among native-born than among foreign born. But foreign-born women are more positive towards SD, 3.9 percent, than native-born women, 3.0 percent. It is hard to explain why.

With regard to education, there is a clear correlation: the higher the education, the lower the support for SD. The greatest support, 11.9 per cent of the party members is among men with lower secondary education. Lowest of about 1.0 percent is found among women with a secondary education of at least three years.

Support for the Sweden Democrats is greatest among unskilled workers and entrepreneurs, and the lowest among skilled and management strategists. In this group workers supports SD by 9.4 percent, the group employed with financial  and state aid support up to 8.8 percent. Among the skilled business, people support for the party is 2.4 percent. Maybe this could explain why the Swedish job market is embedded with high level of racial discrimination - if entrepreneur cold supports xenophobic party that preaches hate.

Also support for the Sweden Democrats is greater among private sector employees than among public employees, but varies greatly between different workers unions. Within the workers Union, LO, members support for SD is 7.7 percent, compared with 3.5 and 1.1 percent for TCO and Saco members.

With regard to income, SD greatest support, 8.9 percent, comes from among voters who lack self-employment income. This includes a mix of pensioners, the unemployed and people with income support. Low support, 2.8 percent is found in people with the highest income.
by Scancomark.com Team

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