Celebrities speak out! Do we care?

 The process of forming a government in Sweden has become a veritable ongoing saga. If someone were to take the initiative, it could easily be turned into a drama series on Netflix. There are impasses that seem impossible to resolve, with major "red lines" drawn between certain parties.

Yesterday, a globally renowned pop artist reportedly spoke out, suggesting that the far-left—a group she sympathises with—should soften some of their red lines in order to stop the Sweden Democrats.

This well-known artist is Robyn.

It is not uncommon for so-called celebrities to express their opinions on social media; what is unusual is that the media uses these statements as news in the public debate—as if they were something we ought to take into account.

But what is it, then, that she is against, and what is she in favour of?

The Sweden Democrats have long been controversial, primarily due to their immigration policy, but also because of their origins. In the 1990s, the party included quite a few extremists with ties to white power movements; however, over time, the party has expelled such individuals and altered its policies—though I do have some level of understanding [regarding the concerns].

The Sweden Democrats (SD) are typically categorised within a political family that researchers often describe as national-conservative, right-wing populist, or radical right. These parties combine:

a restrictive immigration and integration policy;

a strong emphasis on national culture, identity, and law and order;

Euroscepticism—though rarely involving calls for withdrawal anymore;

and a defence of the welfare state, often based on the premise that it should primarily benefit the country’s own citizens—a concept known as "welfare chauvinism."

In a global context, one could—albeit somewhat loosely—compare them to the following parties:

Rassemblement National (RN), France

Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), Germany

The Republican Party under Donald Trump, USA

So this is what she is against; now for what she is in favour of:

A party that, not so many years ago, dropped "communism" from its name, yet to a large extent still upholds some of those same views. One of the party leaders remarked that he wept on the day the Berlin Wall was torn down—and these were not tears of joy.

Unlike the Sweden Democrats and other parties on the right, the far-left does not want school-leaving ceremonies to be held in a church. As the saying goes: "It’s fine to hold them in a church, provided that no religious songs are sung and no priest is allowed to speak."

A simple question for Robyn: who is the most extreme?