The last election ended with a major win for the Swedish Democratic party an traditionally extremist right wing party that now will be the third biggest party in the Swedish government. Sorry that clip is entirely in Swedish. This was the election commercial for the Swedish Liberalist Party, who wants to restrict migration and instead help people in war torn countries with aid while they stay inside the nation. This commercial is remarkable since you clearly can see that the man and woman in the clip is not ethnic Swedes. Yet they support a party who does not approve of immigrants like them. Please rewind the clip to 20 secs- that is when it gets interesting.(Sorry that it's not subtitled). Also I do not support this party's politics I choose to include it because I find it interesting that an extremist party decides to use immigrants as a way to improve their reputation. Not to mention that the girl is a Korean adoptee like me and the guy is an adoptee to- from Sri Lanka.
Sweden has the Swedish Liberal Party and a smaller even more extremist party called the Swedes. Norway is no different they have the Progressive Party, Denmark has the Danish People's Party and many other European nations have at least one extremist liberal party. Britain, France, and Belgium has it to even Germany even though it has banned extremist liberal parties by law (due to the World Wars). Besides these countries Italy, Greece, Spain, Hungary and Austria has it to.
All of these political parties has one thing in common they want to restrict migration and favor cultural adjustments for the refugees and immigrants that eventually are accepted. It is upsetting to me as a woman of colour and immigrant background to see that fellow adoptees have joined a liberal extremist party like this.
With these new liberal extremist parties I believe many of the supporters and believers are not really a true supporters. In lack of other options or as a protest against increased migration, lack of housing and employment it has been possible for parties the Swedish Democratic party to gain followers like the more liberal Swedes party. (In the previous election from 2010 the Swedish Liberal Party was a one question political party wanting to restrict and regulate migration.) For the last election their party policy was more general than previously. The political situation in Sweden is not unique many other countries is already dealing with this situation. Norway, Denmark, France, Italy, Germany, Greece, Hungary and Spain are already having a liberal extremist party in their governments. They all have one thing in common-they want to heavily restrict and regulate migration and protect their own values and their culture.
Can you even call yourself a non racist when the core values of a party is to restrict migration
Although you would think that the extremist parties in Scandinavia are similar that is not the case- the Swedish Democrats has a history of nazism and racism. In the party's early days they were not accepting adoptees , viewing them as immigrants.
Even though these parties have found supporters who are immigrants themselves -many adoptees for me it is upsetting that adoptees or people with other ethnicities would choose to give their vote to a party who has a policy of restricting migration. This is not the Europe or Sweden of my childhood, as much as I love the country where I grow up I confess that the innocence and security I felt as a child is forever lost. Maybe that is natural since I am an adult now or a consequence of the political development in Europe.
There is nothing extraordinary with the political commercial unless you are told that the Swedish Democrats used to be an extremist xenophobia party that wants to restrict migration from non-European countries. Although this party recently managed to sway and convince immigrants and adoptees to support them I find this tragic and hypocritical. Since this party used to dislike adoptees trying to stop us from procreating while it under the last years has changed its party policy. Nowadays they do not ban you, if you are an ethnic immigrant as long as you are well adjusted to the Swedish culture.
Secondly, it is upsetting and hypocritical that people of another ethnic belonging gives their vote to them since they are in fact immigrants as well. Wanting to regulate and restric migration is one thing but I just wish they could realize that their own life most certainly would become affected and changed.
I confess that I am worried what possibly could happen if this xenophobic party gains more power, I know it will affect my life and civil rights. As some of you may or may not know it has been possible for Korean adoptees to seek dual citizenship despite their real citizenship gained from adoption. (Of course, not all Korean adoptees lost their Korean citizenship upon adoption. It was not until late 2000s that US adoptees automatically gained US citizenship). Many European nations accepts dual citizenship for adoptees until recently the countries was;
Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Luxemburg, Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom and U.S.A.
If this particular party gains an important role in the next government it might be that Sweden no longer will accept dual citizenship for adoptees. As someone who still has a genuine connection to my birth country I still have not decided if I or when I should try to apply. My own identity as a Swede and a Korean adoptee is threatened now. At least that is how it feels, if I deny my ethnicity I feel like I am betraying myself and rejecting and denying my birth family. If I decide to go along with them doing as they want-pretending to be a well adjusted Swede which means denying my urge and wish to know my ethnic heritage and family. That would be like waiting for the storm to come. Some would be pleased by it, others would only pretened to be while others would be upset by it. Either way you cannot please everyone.
Even though the election has ended it produced a political crisis since the Swedish Democratic party became the third bggest party in the government. The party gained 13% of all votes which meant that the party has qualified to recieve seats and important appointments. This is a scenario many Swedes and politicans has dreaded yet now it is reality.
The classic political parties needs to adopt another approch in how to handle or respond to the debates that the Swedish Democrats has started. The newly established government is Democratic, feminist friendly and environmentally aware Sweden now has there first Green government.
Yet it is worrying that the 13% of voters might expect the Swedish Democratic party to deliver on their election promises.
It is not possible for us humans to choose our parents or our ethnicity just as we cannot prevent people from dying... Generally speaking most Swedes seems to be bored with mainstream politicians feeling stigmatized.
The only other party that seems to listen to these people are unfortunately the Swedish Democrats. As this entry is published their still is uncertainty with the new government that might mean that the party leader from the third biggest party will demand a re-election.
