Across the Western world people are rising up against their dishonest rulers.
So now we know: nowhere is immune to the populist surge. Not even Sweden. Not even every European liberals’ favourite welfarist state. Once considered the happy country of Europe, an oasis of technocratic calm in an often unpredictable continent, now even Sweden has been rattled by populism. In last week’s election the Sweden Democrats, a right-wing nationalist party, emerged as the second largest party in parliament. And this has shaken not only the political class in Stockholm but liberal elites around the world. It’s a ‘dramatic shift’, says the New York Times. ‘Astonishing’, says Deutsche Welle. An ‘earthquake’, insist leftist observers. They sound like the troops of an embattled army watching their last patch of territory be conquered by the enemy.
