EU RO P E A N T R A DE U N I O N D I A LOGU E TRADE UNIONS AND RIGHT-WING POPULISM IN EUROPE Country Study Sweden Johan Sjölander March 2023 JUST A MATTER OF TIME? THE SWEDEN DEMOCRATS AND THE SWEDISH TRADE UNIONS This is just a matter of time. The more we are, the more workplaces we can take over and vote for dele­gates who share our values, and appoint new boards. Jörgen Fogelklou, SD In the Swedish national elections in 2022 a right­wing extremist party, founded by neo-Nazis, became Sweden’s second largest party(20.54 per cent). The Sverigedemokraterna (SD; Sweden Democrats) did not only pass the traditional leading conservative party Moderata samlingspartiet (M; Moderate Party)(19.1 per cent) when it came to popular support, they also be ­came an important part of the parliamentary major­ity behind the new conservative government. On December 8 th , 2022, the Svea Hovrätt (Svea Court of Appeal) published a judgement between the the Svenska Transportarbetareförbundet (Transport; Swed ­ish Transport Workers’ Union) and one of their mem ­bers. The court reconfirmed earlier rulings that made it illegal for the trade union to exclude the member in question for being a member of the SD. Two opposing principles were presented in the court: The trade un ­ion as an independent non-governmental organisa­tion and its right to establish rules for who can be a member, and the members’ right to uphold member­ship in an organisation of economic and practical rel­evance. The judgement was controversial and might very well be tried in the highest instance. Moreover, it highlights the tensions that arise in the heart of the labour movement with the rise of the SD. It is not right to say that the SD is a working-class par­ty. They have support in all social groups. But it is true that they have been able to mobilise working class voters in a way that the traditional conservative par­ties have not. This puts a substantial tension in Swedish politics and Swedish trade union organising. While the trade un ­ions in the LO federation( Landsorganisationen i Sver­ige , Swedish Trade Union Confederation), that organ ­ises a large majority of the blue collar workers, have strong, historical, and ideological bounds to the Social Democratic Party, a larger and larger part of the work­ing-class electorate, especially the males, has turned to the Sweden Democrats’ extreme right populism. 1 1 This country study is an updated, revised, and English language version of a previously published paper by the author; Sjölander, Johan(2022):“Populisme de droite et syndicats en Suède: quelle est la position des Démocrates de Suède vis-à-vis du dialogue social et de l’électorat ouvrier?” in: Greef, Samuel et al.(Eds.) (2022): L’extrême droite européenne contre les travailleurs, Éditions Fondation Jean-Jaurès, pp. 17–21, https://www.jean-jaures.org/ publication/lextreme-droite-europeenne-contre-les-travailleurs-un­dialogue-social-menace/. 1