National Democrats

National Democrats Nationaldemokraterna
Leader	Marc Abramsson
Founded	October 2001
Headquarters	Stockholm
Newspaper	Nationell Idag
Ideology	Nationalism, Ethnopluralism[1], Third Position[2]
Political position	Far right[3][4][5]
International affiliation	Euronat
European affiliation	Alliance of European National Movements
European Parliament Group	None
Official colours	Orange
Website
http://www.nationaldemokraterna.se/
Politics of Sweden Political parties Elections

The National Democrats (Nationaldemokraterna, ND) is a minor political party in Sweden, formed by a faction of the Sweden Democrats in October 2001. The party describes itself as a democratic nationalist and ethnopluralist party.^[1]

In the 2006 general election the party received 3,064 votes (0.06%), far below the 4 percent threshold necessary for parliamentary representation, however they currently have representation in two municipalities south of Stockholm^[6][7]. The current chairman of the party is Marc Abramsson.

On February 2, 2008, the old party logo consisting of a blue and yellow sail was replaced with an orange cloudberry flower. [1]

Ideology

The party describes its ideology as nationalist ("national democratic") and ethnopluralist.^[1] According to Jimmy Windeskog, a leading member of the party, the "political roots of the party goes back to the social democratic idea of the Folkhemmet, so professionally constructed by social democratic politicians like Per Albin Hansson and Ernst Wigforss. These people have more in common with ND today than any other party".^[8]

A broad outline of the party program^[9]:

• Defend Sweden by retaining an ethnic Swedish majority.
• Immigration should be brought to a fraction of its current level.
• The culture should be traditionally Swedish and foreign cultural influences should be limited. Thus, the National Democrats advocate a ban on mosques and want to limit public exposure and glorification of "unhealthy artworks" and American ghetto culture.
• No foreign institutions or companies should be able to own major Swedish media.
• Stop immigration to Sweden of people from outside the Western world.
• Sweden to work for the disbanding of the European Union, which should be replaced by trade and cooperation agreements.

The party is highly critical of multinational corporations such as Shell and McDonald's which they label as "imperialist corporations" who are "exploiting third world resources [and] contributing to environmental pollution".^[10]

In its 2006 general election manifesto, the party writes: "For years the social democrats have pursued a pure liberalist right-wing policy. They have bent their backs for the global market forces and opened up our country for the large companies to greedily grab. We know that Sweden can perform well in competition with other countries, but then the state needs to side with Swedish workers'."^[11]

The party is also highly critical of United States foreign policy and of NATO, which it calls the "military spearheads of the global empire".^[12][13] The party also calls for struggle against what it calls the "imperialist occupations of Serbia, Palestine, Iraq and Afghanistan."^[13]

Many in the mainstream media have designated the party as xenophobic and/or racist^{[14][15][16][17][18][19]} the party has publicly rejected these descriptions as a smear.^[20][21]

Campaigns and political ties

Campaigning before the 2004 European Parliament election, Nick Griffin of the British National Party visited Sweden and the National Democrats to give the party his endorsement.^{[citation needed]}

The National Democrats have participated in annual marches honoring King Charles XII of Sweden on November 30 and a march in memory of the bombing of Dresden in World War II.^{[citation needed]}

References

External links

• Nationaldemokraterna, official website (Swedish)
• Presentation of the party in English