This weekend, the SD will meet for its party congress, known as the Landsdagarna, in Örebro. There, Sweden Democrats from all over the country will gather ahead of the 2026 election year. And after the SD got large parts of both its criminal and migration policies through in the Tidö Agreement, it is now the government that looms.
After the next election, you are either in government or in opposition, that was already said when Tidö was launched. I see no possibility for SD to back down from that, says Andreas Johansson Heinö, a political scientist and publisher at the bourgeois think tank Timbro who has studied SD for a long time.
He notes that the consensus in the party on this is “total.” At the congress, participants are also expected to state that it should be entirely up to party leader Jimmie Åkesson to be able to say no to a prime ministerial candidate, unless the SD has gained acceptable influence in the government.
Return migration is a big issue
If it were to happen that SD is allowed into government, it would be such a big step for the party that that is what is important, says Johansson Heinö.
When they gave up on it with Tidö 2022, it was about showing that they got a lot of substantive policy through. If you are in government, you won't have to show that "we'll get all this through too," he says.
However, he believes that one issue will continue to stand out, and that is the continuation of the migration issue, where SD is increasingly talking about remigration.
The government has already been persuaded to agree to an increased repatriation grant, even though the inquiry thought it was a bad idea. I think there will be more to come about that. Both Jimmie Åkesson and other representatives of the SD have said that it is the next big step.
The SD hopes that the increased contribution will encourage more people to voluntarily return to their home countries. However, it is uncertain how much of an effect it will actually have.
Then you can imagine scenarios where SD still sees this as the solution, but it doesn't happen by itself, then the pressure must increase further, says Johansson Heinö.
New areas of conflict
The question is how committed the other Tidö parties are to it. They have recently instead seemed to be moving more towards investing in successful integration. This could create new areas of conflict between the four parties, Johansson Heinö believes.
The more that issue is on the agenda, and SD cannot deviate from its basic line, there will also be a rift. However, I think it is more negotiable. It will be possible to agree on migration after 2026 as well.
The SD's state parliament is the party's highest decision-making body.
They begin on November 20th and run until November 23rd.
The party will, among other things:
- elect a new party board
- decide on the direction of their election platform
- decide what mandate party leader Jimmie Åkesson will have in any government negotiations
- take a position on all motions received from members
A hot issue could be the semi-automatic rifle AR-15, which many have been campaigning for. Hunters have been banned from buying such weapons since last summer, but hunters who already have the rifle have been forced to surrender it. The question is whether the campaigners are happy with it or whether they will take up arms in Örebro.
The SD also wants to change the law on incitement against ethnic groups, and remove incitement based on sexual orientation and religious affiliation.
In addition, the youth association Ungsvenskarna has written motions about Swexit, stopping public funding for gender reassignment surgery, and making conscription mandatory for men only.
