This week we are turning a spotlight on the two parties most likely to shape Sweden’s immigration policy after the September 13th election.
Yesterday we heard from Ida Karkiainen, the Social Democrats’ immigration spokesperson. Today we’ll hear a conversation The Local's Richard Orange had with her counterpart in the Sweden Democrats, Ludvig Aspling. This interview took place in early August, a week before parliament voted on a so-called ‘safety valve’ to end teen deportations, which is one of the topics discussed in the episode.
The Sweden Democrats were long a pariah in Swedish politics due to their Nazi roots. But as the largest party on the right in the 2022 election they emerged as one of the main architects of the Tidö agreement underpinning the government’s so-called paradigm shift on immigration over the past four years.
The shift has seen Sweden get much tougher on asylum immigration, work and residence permits and citizenship, with many of the policies directly impacting a lot of readers of The Local.
With that in mind, make sure to tune in to this week’s main episode of Sweden in Focus, which we expect to come out on Friday, for discussion and analysis of these interviews with the main immigration spokespeople for two of Sweden’s biggest rival parties.
So what can foreigners in Sweden expect if the right holds on to power after the election on Sunday and the Sweden Democrats receive ministerial posts for the first time, and how happy is Ludvig Aspling with how Sweden’s immigration landscape has changed over the last four years?
Tune in for the full interview.
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