Headlines from the four leading Swedish anti-immigration right-wing sites.Barbro Sjöstrand, a 77-year-old psychiatrist working at a child and adolescent psychiatry centre in Stockholm, was searching for opinions on immigration online when she found Ledarsidorna. The right-wing populist website, read by 8% of Swedish internet users each week, gave her exactly was she was looking for: a stream of news stories and op-eds vehemently opposed to Sweden’s famously welcoming attitude towards refugees and progressive immigration laws.
Despite voting for the centre-right Moderate Party at last month’s general election, Sjöstrand believes that the Sweden Democrats (SD) are more trustworthy than any of the mainstream parties and expressed an interest in their hardline anti-immigration policy. The anti-EU, nationalist, socially conservative party won 17% of the vote: less than was expected but enough to cement their place as the third-largest party in parliament. Sjöstrand believes that websites like Ledarsidorna, which are supportive of the SD, are more “open-minded” than legacy media outlets. “If I say something controversial at work, most people around me become silent,” said Sjöstrand over Skype one Sunday, but “if we don’t talk with each other, we have no democracy.”
Sjöstrand is part of a growing number of Swedes now visiting hard-right websites for news and opinions. According to a 2018 report from Reuters Institute, the four most popular – Fria Tider, Nyheter Idag, Ledarsidorna and Samhällsnytt – each reach around a tenth of Swedish internet users every week; by comparison, the online news sites of national newspapers and public service broadcasters are read by between 15% to 46% of Swedes. These sites tap into anti-immigrant sentiment with stories focusing on crime committed by immigrants and refugees and their perceived damaging impact on Swedish culture.
