Sweden on ‘high alert' for election interference amid Russia tensions
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Loading... - Mandy Hill
- 06 Sep 2022
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Sweden has said it is on “high alert” for outside intervention in its upcoming election amid increased tensions with Russia.
The Scandinavian country’s recently re-established psychological defence agency said it had seen heightened activity from foreign sources following its application to join Nato and it was prepared for the possibility of “something exceptional” in the lead-up to polling day on 11 September.
After a turbulent period for Swedish politics, including the resignation of Stefan Löfven as prime minister, the rise of Magdalena Andersson, the country’s first female leader, and threats from Vladimir Putin, the latest polls are exceptionally close in a highly charged campaign with a strong focus on immigration.
In what would be a seismic shift to the right, polls suggest the Sweden Democrats, rightwing populists with neo-Nazi roots, could be on track to replace the Moderates as Sweden’s second biggest party.
Generally elections have been a race between left-leaning parties led by Andersson’s Social Democrats and a centre-right coalition led by the Moderates, but even the latter party has in just a few years gone from urging Swedes to “open your hearts” to refugees to embracing the Sweden Democrats – a party whose leader, Jimmie Åkesson, has called for asylum to be cut to “close to zero”.
Sweden’s perceived vulnerabilities to foreign disinformation include on immigration, violent crime, schools, jobs, pensions and rising energy costs.
Mats Engström, a visiting fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations and a former adviser to a Social Democrat foreign minister, said while it was no surprise violent crime is in the spotlight as deadly shootings rise, discussion linking it to migration has “for years been reinforced by Russian and other troll factories”.
He said the Swedish election system was “robust” but disinformation aimed at the end of the election campaign would be much harder to counteract.
Mikael Östlund, a spokesperson for the psychological defence agency, said: ““We have a high alert all the time but we are aware of the fact that it might be an occasion that someone would like to harm Sweden, impact the Swedish democracy process, to do something exceptional towards the end of the election campaign.”
The cold war-era government body, intended to protect democracy, freedom of opinion and independence, was reintroduced in January amid rising fears over Russian aggression. Read More…
