Swedish Far-right groups getting increasingly active

Tuesday, 25 June 2013
Swedish Far-right and xenophobic groups have become increasingly active as racist and xenophobic tendencies and activities are increasingly being registered around the country.
The organisation Expo in presenting its annual report this week throw more light and clarity about the nature of their activities after examining activism among groups focusing on racist issues in Sweden.

The type of activities that have increased the most is the dissemination of information by means of posters and leafleting and social activities such as study.
Expo organisation which provides information about racism in Sweden, has counted every organized activity among these groups and found that they increased by 24 percent in 2012, reports radio Sweden.
Anders Dalsbro of Expos told radio Sweden that one of the main drivers of the increase activism is the force given to such activities by political party, Swedish Party.

"What we really have seen is that it is a linked to an organization called the Swedish party, they have grown their business significantly in 2012," says Anders Dalsbro.
"Swedish party has increasingly come to dominate the racist environment and has taken over a large part of the business from the other groups and also recruited a large part of their activists."
Expo analyse that for the first time since 2008, an increase of the activities of groups that focus on racist issues has really taken off. Swedish party, as security police define is a white power movement. It is the group according to Expo which has increased its activism most of the last years. One reason that they have become more active, according to Anders Dalsbro is the coming election in 2014.
"They are committed to enter the municipal elections which they failed to succeed with in 2010. The 2014 target is 10 municipal mandates, and the danger of it is that if they win they'll manage to build a stronger party structure," he says.
Expos study is largely based on the activities that these groups themselves post on their websites and in social media and can therefore be difficult to measure. Expo also points out that the study should not be taken as exact figures but rather as a trend.
Other researchers of these groups such as Hans Brun who is a researcher at the Swedish National Defence College and Kings College - London are not surprised. 
"They try to copy the Sweden Democrats' success concepts and builds on course to tone down the violent and disgusting behaviour and legitimize their own battle. It has been seen that there is a space for their opinions and they can get votes and then they appear to be soften," he says.
by Scancomark.com Team