Sweden Democrats’ Appeal To Christianity: Can Religious Identity Politics Win General Support?

Abstract

The Sweden Democrats (SD) promote religious identity politics. This is done despite the fact that few of SD’s voters identify themselves as religious and the fact that Christianity does not have a large influence over Swedish politics. Hence, it is reasonable to understand these efforts as both reflecting Islamophobia and a culture preservation strategy. The article traces the debate over SD’s public appeal to Christianity, through the Church of Sweden (CoS) – SD being represented with 14 delegates in the Synod – and through the party system. The article also analyses sanctions that any affiliation with SD can lead to, specified as negative labelling, and the choice between keeping one’s job and discontinuing one’s SD membership for ministers and deacons in CoS. The article finds that the various actors have managed to contain and isolate the SD, implying weak support for religious identity politics.