Varför vi älskar att hata Sverigedemokraterna

Abstract

[Why we love to hate Sverigedemokraterna] In this article, Anders Hellström explores the role of the anti-immigrant party Sverigedemokraterna (the Sweden Democrats, SD) in Swedish politics. The main argument is that we love to hate SD and that we through our joint dissociation from the party express our sense of community and feeling of solidarity. Within this logic, SD do not only have wrong opinions, they also represent evil characters. According to Hellström, we have to look at political communication as something more than compromising and rational interests to understand SD’s position as the outsider in Swedish politics. Politics are about the release of feelings, expressing visions and acting out passions for or against a specific political project. Hellström’s study is conducted upon the basis of SD’s political guidelines for the 2010 national elections and the public debate in the media about the party. Theoretically, Hellström connects to the academic discussion about which concepts to use, for instance “nationalism” and “populism”, to classify the kind of party that SD is. The text is interspersed with references to topical political debate. Publication history: Published original. (Published 16 September 2013) Citation: Hellström, Anders (2013) ”Varför vi älskar att hata Sverigedemokraterna”, in Det vita fältet II. Samtida forskning om högerextremism , special issue of Arkiv. Tidskrift för samhällsanalys , issue 2, pp. 69–99. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.13068/2000-6217.2.3