Sweden's migration policies have become harsh and aggressive, targeting even the most vulnerable, including a baby named Emanuel and a four-year-old autistic boy named Raif. The shift, which began after the 2022 election, has embedded far-right ideas into mainstream politics, and the upcoming election may not reverse the trend.
Cases of harsh deportation orders
Emanuel, born in Sweden in 2025, was ordered to be removed to Iran alone before his first birthday, despite the ongoing war there. His parents had legal Swedish residency permits, but the laws were tightened after his birth, trapping the family in a bureaucratic maze designed to limit migration.
Raif, a four-year-old with autism who cannot talk, was also told he would be deported alone. His case drew significant media coverage, and the authorities eventually reversed the decision. However, the migration department continues to issue absurd, hardline orders, including for a 74-year-old British man with dementia who was told to leave after 25 years in the country. Another British man on a World Bank retirement pension was deemed unwelcome because retirement money does not count as salary under new income thresholds.
Political shift and the Tidö agreement
The transformation began in 2022 when the conservative bloc won the general election by a tiny margin. The Tidö agreement, struck that December between the Moderates, Christian Democrats, Liberals, and the far-right Sweden Democrats, allowed a minority government to form. This pact broke the mainstream's cordon sanitaire against cooperating with the radical right and launched significant policy shifts on immigration, crime, climate, energy, schools, and healthcare.
Establishment conservatives defended the accord as a way to blunt the Sweden Democrats' impact, but it instead gave the far right extraordinary power to shape policy without ministerial jobs. As a result, the Overton window of acceptable debate has shifted radically to the right, with only 15% of Swedes approving of Donald Trump, yet similar ethnonationalist ideas now define much of Swedish politics.
Human rights concerns and scandals
The Swedish Institute for Human Rights, an independent government agency, expressed "serious concern" over an erosion of human rights in Sweden in its 2026 annual report, citing growing acceptance of xenophobic views, hate crimes, and punitive policies directed at children. Civil Rights Defenders, a legal watchdog, also noted that the government no longer talks about rights but about control, entwining migration with crime and depicting citizens, even children, as problems and risks.
In the final sprint of the election campaign, scandals have hit the far right. Expo, a magazine monitoring far-right extremism, reported that Gustav Gellerbrant, a key ideologue in the Sweden Democrats with alleged ties to Russian influence operations, was placed on paid leave. Peter Hultqvist, a Social Democrat former defence minister, called the matter a "security crisis" for Sweden that "goes right into the prime minister's own office." Gellerbrant denounced the reports as a media "witch-hunt," a strategy that has become the new default for the far right.
Cultural and climate shifts
Conservatives have distanced themselves from former prime ministers Fredrik Reinfeldt and Carl Bildt, who advocated inclusive, centre-right liberalism. The government's "cultural canon" mocks Reinfeldt for his pro-immigration views and blames his "internationalist" agenda for Sweden's problems. The canon excludes works from the multicultural Sweden that emerged after 1975, featuring only figures like Ingmar Bergman, Ikea, Pippi Longstocking, and the Viggen fighter jet.
The government has also turned away from scientific consensus on climate. Johan Rockström, a climate scientist, said he was invited by every previous government to share his research on planetary boundaries, but the current government has not reached out once. The government increasingly ignores advisory bodies, especially on authoritarian crime policies, passing bills against the advice of criminologists and social scientists who warn against harsher punishments for children.
The opposition, led by the Social Democrats, holds a slight lead in opinion polls, but struggles to articulate a clear alternative, preferring a cautious campaign similar to Denmark's Social Democrats or the UK Labour Party under Keir Starmer. The tight polls suggest millions of Swedes still consider prisons and isolation the future. Eight years ago, Ulf Kristersson promised a Holocaust survivor he would never form a government with the far right, but now he is promising them cabinet positions. The Sweden Democrats have not changed, but Sweden certainly has.
