KENT EKEROTH, a 34-year-old member of parliament for the far-right Sweden Democrats (SD) party, has a pithy response to the idea that immigration can be good for a country: “Bullshit.” Mr Ekeroth’s party would like to block any more refugees from coming to Sweden and kick out many of those who have come already. Most migrants, Mr Ekeroth thinks, are in Sweden to take advantage of its welfare system. That money should be spent on Swedes, he feels.
Opinions of this sort used to be marginal in Sweden. For years the country has taken pride in accepting more refugees per person than any other in Europe. In the 2006 election the SD, which once had ties to neo-Nazi groups, drew just 2.9% of the vote. But in last year’s election it won 13%, and recent polls give it 20% or more, making it the country’s biggest or second-biggest party. It is expanding beyond its working-class base, attracting supporters who have been to university. In multicultural Stockholm, bien-pensant yuppies anxiously confess that childhood friends now support the SD.
As with Sweden, so with Europe. Across the continent, right-wing populists are…