Is Sweden Democrats left wing or right wing?

On economic organisation Sweden Democrats scores +01 on a scale from −10 (common ownership) to +10 (private property and markets). On social and cultural order it scores +08. A single left–right figure combines these and four further measurements that move independently, which is why the atlas reports six.

Is Sweden Democrats authoritarian?

On the organisation of power, which measures whether authority is dispersed among institutions that can stop each other or concentrated in a single centre, Sweden Democrats scores +03. Operates entirely within parliamentary institutions and supports a governing coalition from outside.

Atlas / Organisations / Sweden Democrats

Sweden Democrats

SD · 1988– · Sweden · Radical Right Populist · Electoral party · coding confidence medium

+01ECmarket

+08CUtraditional

+03AUmonist

+03SCcentral

+08IDascriptive

−04CHlawful

Each axis runs from −10 to +10, with zero a genuine mixed or balanced position rather than an absence of opinion. A score describes a stated position and a governing record; it is not a judgement of merit. What each score means →

Core principles

National cultural conservatism, restrictive immigration, defence of the Swedish welfare model for citizens.

Economic model

Supports the welfare state, higher pensions, law-and-order spending; broadly centrist on tax.

Organisation of powers

Operates entirely within parliamentary institutions and supports a governing coalition from outside.

Reading note

Its economic coding sits near the centre, which is typical of the Nordic radical right and unlike its southern European counterparts.

Check a claim about Sweden Democrats. The interactive atlas measures the distance between any two organisations across all six axes and shows which ones carry the disagreement.

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The evidence for every score

All six cells are sourced. A rationale explains what the score is measuring and each artefact is something a third party can check without taking anyone's word for it.

EC · Economic organisation · scored +01

Coded +1: welfare chauvinism, defending the Swedish model for citizens.

Programme textSupports higher pensions and health spending while opposing benefits for recent arrivals.

CU · Social and cultural order · scored +08

Coded +8: cultural nationalism as the party's founding commitment.

Programme textProgramme frames Swedish culture as requiring protection and assimilation as the goal of integration.

AU · Organisation of power · scored +03

Coded +3: entirely parliamentary, supporting a government from outside it.

Documented act or statuteSigned the 2022 Tidö agreement supporting a governing coalition without taking ministries.

SC · Scale of decision · scored +03

Coded +3: a unitary Swedish state against EU authority.

Programme textProgramme commitments to renegotiate EU membership terms and oppose further integration.

ID · Rule of membership · scored +08

Coded +8: return migration and citizenship revocation are programme commitments.

Programme textProgramme includes voluntary return incentives and revocation of citizenship for serious crime.

CH · Method and tempo · scored −04

Coded −4: two decades of deliberate normalisation from a neo-Nazi origin.

ScholarshipThe party expelled members and rewrote its programme through the 1990s and 2000s to enter mainstream politics.

How it moved

Positions are recorded at dated anchor points tied to a documented moment — a programme adopted, a government formed, a reversal. Nothing is interpolated between them, because nothing is known between them. Figures in amber moved by two points or more from the previous anchor.

Anchor	EC	CU	AU	SC	ID	CH	What it is tied to
1988	+03	+10	+05	+03	+10	+04	Founded out of the Keep Sweden Swedish campaign, with members drawn from openly neo-Nazi organisations.
2005	+02	+09	+04	+03	+09	00	New leadership imposes a zero tolerance policy and expels members.
2014	+01	+08	+03	+03	+08	−03	Parliamentary breakthrough; welfare positions move left.
2022	+01	+08	+03	+03	+08	−04	Signs the Tidö agreement and supports a governing coalition from outside it.

Net movement, 1988 to 2022: EC −2, CU −2, AU −2, ID −2, CH −8. A trajectory records where an organisation has been. It does not forecast, and several organisations in this corpus moved a long way with no warning available in advance.

Nearest organisations by measured distance

Straight-line separation across all six axes, out of a maximum of 49.0. Proximity means similarity of stated position, not endorsement and not resemblance in outcome.

Countries

Sweden

Cite this page

Scores are revised on evidence, so a citation should carry the version it refers to. Version 4.3.1 is current; the revision log records every change.

McGrath, K. (2026). Sweden Democrats. The Political Atlas, version 4.2. https://thepoliticalatlas.com/organisations/sd/ (accessed 2026-08-01).

Free to quote and reproduce with attribution. This is a synthesis rather than a peer-reviewed dataset — where an authoritative figure is needed, cite the Chapel Hill Expert Survey, the Manifesto Project or V-Dem.