PERSPECTIVE DEMOCRACY AND HUMAN RIGHTS THE SWEDISH MODERATE PARTY AND RIGHT WING POPULISM Sweden takes a conservative shift to the right Håkan A. Bengtsson August 2021 • The big question currently being asked in many democratic coun­tries is: How to deal with right­wing populist parties? • There is the grave danger that, if there is a government led by Sweden’s conservative Moder­ate Party after the 2022 parlia­mentary elections, the right-wing populist Sweden Democrats could have a considerable influ­ence on the affairs of state. • This is partly the result of a con­vergence on issues between Sweden’s conservative parties and the right-wing popu­lists – first and foremost attribu­ ted to the largest opposition party, the conservative Modera­ te Party. With their willingness to cooper­ate with the Sweden Democrats, the Moderate Party broke with a long-standing cons­ ensus among established demo­cratic parties.