Sweden Democrats
Election year # of overall votes % of overall vote # of overall seats won +/-
1999 8,568 0.3 0 / 22
2004 28,303 1.1 0 / 19 0
2009 103,584 3.3 0 / 19 0
2014 359,248 9.7 2 / 20 2
2019 636,877 15.3 3 / 20 1
Electoral results -- European Parliament
Sweden Democrats or Swedish Democrats (, SD) is a national-conservative, populist political party in Sweden founded in 1988. The party describes itself as social conservative with a nationalist foundation. The party has been characterized by others as right-wing populist or far-right, national-conservative, and anti-immigration. Jimmie Åkesson has been party leader since 2005. The party has its roots in Swedish fascism and was primarily a white nationalist movement through the early-1990s, when it first began distancing itself from its past. Today, the Sweden Democrats officially reject both fascism and Nazism. The Sweden Democrats crossed the 4% threshold necessary for parliamentary representation for the first time in the 2010 general election, polling 5.7% and gaining 20 seats in the Riksdag. This increase in popularity has been compared by international media to other similar anti-immigration movements in Europe. The party received increased support in the 2018 Swedish general election, when it polled 17.5% and secured 62 seats in parliament, becoming the third largest party in Sweden. The Sweden Democrats remained isolated in the Riksdag for a long time because the other parties staunchly maintained a policy of refusing cooperation with them. However, in March 2019 Christian Democratic leader Ebba Busch Thor announced that her party was ready to start negotiations with the Sweden Democrats in the Riksdag. The Sweden Democrats are a member of European Conservatives and Reformists group in the European Parliament.