The Left under siege in Europe

Sweden Democrats, as the party is known, has provoked angry protests with its advertisements and pledges to cut immigration by 90 per cent. Some call its members neo-Nazis: one was attacked in his flat in Malmo on September 10 by two masked men who re-enacted a scene from a recent Hollywood war film by carving a swastika into his forehead.

In spite of the backlash, the party is expected to gather much more than the 4 per cent of votes necessary to win seats in parliament and may even end up holding the balance of power, a shocking prospect for the land of Ikea and social democracy.

In fact, the collectivist, egalitarian creed for which Sweden is famous has been fading in recent years, reflecting a change across the European Union. From Belgium to Bulgaria, the demise of the Left and rise of the populist Right have turned Europe's political map into an expanse of blue in which the Iberian peninsula and Greece are among the few remaining islands of red.

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