“Shame on the church of Sweden”: Radical nationalism and the appropriation of Christianity in contemporary Sweden

Abstract

During the last decade, the populist radical nationalist party, the Sweden Democrats (SD), has gone from being a minor party to become Sweden’s third largest party in parliament. In this article, the author shows how the category of Christianity has come to play a pivotal role in the party’s political identification. Drawing on Ernesto Laclau’s analysis of populism, the author argues that Christianity should be understood as a projection surface for fantasies of an ethnically and culturally superior homogenous nation vis-à-vis constructed national others. In a populist logic, Christianity has thus become a way to distinguish the SD from its articulated external (e.g., Muslims, immigrants) and internal (liberalism, feminism) political foes. By appropriating Christianity, the SD articulates itself as the guardian of true Christianity, the future savior of a Church allegedly hijacked by external and internal foes, and in the long run, the Swedish nation.