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this post was submitted on 15 Sep 2023
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I'd like to add that both sides of the political spectrum caused their extreme growth. There was a huge storm of dissatisfaction regarding the immigration politics and at one point I recall our government sponsored news channel showing statistics of about 70% of Swedens citizens were asking for reducing it as it was unsustainable. During this time the centrist right leader held a speech about how "this current situation will cost us a LOT of money, but we need to open our hearts" while the left flat out ignored the problems and said we were a "Humanitarian great power" and stated we were getting highly educated doctors and professors.
The only party that spoke against it was the extreme right, and any mention of anti-immgration caused a massive shitstorm by any other political party that refused to touch the subject. Quite obviously when you polarize the country and refuse to listen to your voters, they'll go to the party that DO.
I'm not defending or showing support for them, I'm just explaining how they're this big because of the arrogance and ignorance of the other parties. THEY made them big and now they have to work with them.
Pretty much exactly what happened in Germany. But because of German history there was not even an honest debate about cost and instead a lot mental gymnastics of how it could benefit the country.
Yeah, this is the problem right here. If none of the mainstream political parties are representing a particular opinion, large swathes of voters will go to the fringe parties that do represent how they feel. And this is how fringe far-right parties become the new mainstream.
It sucks to admit it, because on humanitarian grounds, I'm pretty in favour of accepting migrants, refugees, etc. But if such a large fraction of the population is against it, it simply can't happen, and compromises have to be made.