Our election campaign has only just begun, but in Sweden they recently finished counting the votes and digesting the political turn: the ruling Social Democratic Party did indeed win about 30% of the votes that would guarantee it about 107 seats in the Swedish Parliament, but the second largest party is the far-right party, "The Swedes The Democrats" (SD), with more than 20% of the votes, followed immediately by the "Moderate Party" (M), the conservative-liberal party, with more than 19%.
As in Israel, it is the size of the bloc that will determine the structure of the government.
After the previous elections, which took place in 2018 (yes, elections once every four years, it's worth trying it in Israel), it took more than four months to form a government - mainly because the extreme right was seen as marginalized because of disgust, and no party was ready to "burn" itself on by sitting with it or leaning on it.
But the voters had their say.
The power of the SD has increased, and currently the right-wing bloc has a slight advantage over the left-wing bloc.
This time it will not be possible to ignore the extreme right.
It would not be farfetched to discover that the party, which began its journey in the late 1980s and only entered parliament in 2010 with a paltry 5.7% of the votes - will become a member of the coalition for the first time in its history.
In light of Israel's complex relations with Swedish left-wing governments (for example, the legendary Prime Minister Olof Palma was the first European leader to meet with Arafat as a leader of a legitimate national movement), and certainly in light of the anti-Israel bias in the parliament, the growing alternative can look attractive.
In general, we find that right-wing and nationalist governments in Europe tend to be more pro-Israel, and more empathetic to Israel's fight against terrorism and radical Islam.
But don't be blindsided.
The SD may not be as hostile as the current ruling party, but the party began its journey on the neo-Nazi foundations of movements that, among other things, demonstrated in favor of the release of Rudolf Hess, and only later on did it clean out stables.
As you can guess, one of the main flags of the party today is the opposition to the massive Muslim immigration to Sweden.
This immigration has a negative effect on the Jewish community in Sweden, which is usually between the center and the political left.
However, many in the community fear that what begins as an anti-Muslim sentiment will quickly turn into a sentiment that opposes everything that is not "pure Swedish".
Movements that oppose ethnic minorities can easily be seen as anti-Semitic, and require careful consideration.
And another note: 20% of the Swedish public stated that the outgoing government's immigration policy is bad.
It is interesting to see that in Denmark - which is close to and similar to Sweden in many data - the leftist government maintains a closed and tough immigration policy, but there is no change, and the "red" parties have formed a solid coalition.
Along with the SD, the other right-wing parties in Sweden also criticize the government's unwillingness to recognize the difficulties that immigrants pile up in the fields of welfare, culture, education and crime.
The PC is not profitable, and the public demands a solution to the burning problems.
It seems that in this context, even the Israeli parties have something to learn.
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