Willy Silberstein points out that among the founders of the Sweden Democrats there were people with connections to Nazism and continues:
- When the current leadership joined SD, it was clearly a Nazi party.
There is a party where there are constant scandals with candidates who are known Nazis, who express themselves as anti-Semitic, Islamophobic and so on, he says.
Willy Silberstein says that he sees it as frightening that SD has increased its voter support and expresses a concern that extremist forces will gain wind in their sails due to the party's progress.
- We can state that when Donald Trump won the election in the United States in 2016, racially motivated violence increased noticeably in the United States, when Great Britain voted for Brexit, which was also partly about migration, racial violence also increased, he says.
- I do not mean that the Sweden Democrats in any way call for violence against immigrants, but I think there is a risk that a climate will arise where many people who have racist attitudes feel a greater freedom to say things and possibly also act violently against minorities.
"Make another assessment"
PM Nilsson, political editor at Dagens Industri, was also in the studio and began by saying that he has respect for Willy Silberstein's concerns.
However, he sees the political situation differently.
- I think that those who voted for the Sweden Democrats, and those who voted for parties that want to cooperate with SD, make a different assessment.
You don't see a Nazi party.
Nor can it be said with honor today that SD is a Nazi party or even a particularly radical party, he says.
PM Nilsson places the Sweden Democrats in a Nordic political pattern and compares them with, among others, the Danish People's Party, the Progressive Party and the True Finns.
- The Nordic countries, after the participation of the right-wing nationalist parties in central politics, are still ranked as the world's most stable and sophisticated democracies.