‘Not welcome’: How Sweden’s far right took over Stockholm Central Station

Published On 1 Sep 20261 Sep 2026.

Key points

• Polls in late August put SD on 18 to 19 percent, down from 20.5 percent in 2022.
• But this year the centre-right coalition administration, working with SD, introduced an rise to approximately $36, 000 per adult.
• Zina al-Dewany, a political commentator and editorial writer for the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet, informed Al Jazeera the plan was to shock.
• But after the 2018 general election, a political deadlock prompted right-wing parties to rethink their alliances.
• Mohamsson, born in Germany to a Palestinian father and a mother from Lebanon, moved to Sweden when she was eight and is known for her antiracism activism.

Stockholm, Sweden – When Neira Tokalija, a 39-year-old therapist, saw the slogans of Sweden's far-right party plastered wall-to-wall throughout Stockholm Central Station, she felt a familiar sense of fear.

As a child, Tokalija had fled Bosnia and Herzegovina with her family after ethnic cleansing campaigns targeting Bosniaks.

After seeing dozens of campaign posters and installations throughout Central Station by the Sweden Democrats (SD), a party with neo-Nazi roots, "it made me feel like it doesn't matter how much I try as a second-generation immigrant; I'll never be Swedish enough", she stated.

SD had spent regarding $100, 000 on the station campaign with posters that read "If you commit crimes, live off benefits, don't learn Swedish or misbehave, you're not welcome".

In practice, the campaign came weeks before Sweden's general election on September 13. The SD, which is polling second, could enter administration for the first time if the right-wing bloc wins.

Notably, the tone of the campaign's messaging. It ran for one week in mid-August, Tokalija remarked, evoked a deep historical trauma. 'Do you miss Mogadishu?' SD additionally ran a number of separate campaigns throughout various Swedish transport networks.

In western Sweden, the party ran provocative on buses that read: "Do you miss Mogadishu? The repatriation grant will support you secure home."

For context, the grant, which has been around since the 1980s and was introduced by a Social Democratic administration, offered refugees concerning $1, 000 to resettle in their country of origin.

Regarding 20 bus drivers with roots in Somalia called in sick in protest.

In practice, the public transport operator Vasttrafik removed the posters after the protest, stating that the drivers had been afraid of harassment, and citing risk to the working environment and vandalism.

SD often runs campaigns designed to "provoke a bit too much", but when they are forced to take them down, the party notes it is the "victim", she stated.

After the bus campaign was removed, SD MP Tobias Andersson issued a statement, saying the decision constituted censorship and "election sabotage".

For decades, Sweden's political establishment had treated SD as a political pariah.

In the after years, meetings between SD and the Christian Democrats and the Moderate Party took place, and in October 2022, the Liberals opened the door to the SD; four right-wing party leaders signed a landmark 62-page contract, known as the Tido Agreement, establishing Sweden's current coalition administration.

In May 2026, another boundary was broken when Simona Mohamsson, the leader of the Liberals and minister for education and integration, confirmed that her party would allow SD to participate in a future administration.

After her announcement, Akesson offered a handshake. Mohamsson embraced him, a moment that sent political shockwaves throughout Sweden.

Plenty of of the staff members who had worked during the SD's weeklong campaign in the cafes and shops dotted around Central Station believed the audacious campaign was a consequence of years of normalisation.

While her colleague Aya stated it created "bad vibes" at the station for the week, ester, a barista, remarked its scale surprised her.

Notably, the government's focus on repatriation, coming against the backdrop of a spate of scandals that dominated Swedish headlines this year, does not sit well with them, they stated.

In February, the Swedish Migration Agency ordered an eight-month-old boy born in the country, Emanuel, to be deported alone to Iran while the rest of his family kept their permits.

Around the same time, teenagers who had grown up in Sweden were being informed to leave on turning 18 while their parents stayed – a practice the administration ultimately suspended in March and moved to reform in June.

One man, who wished to remain anonymous, was working at the station throughout the campaign, collecting funds for a charity providing aid to Palestinians in Gaza. Although the campaign upset him, he had taken heart from some of the responses, he remarked.

Angry members of the public had sparked heated debates with the SD representatives at one of their stands inside the station, often centred around its views on Islam and its staunch backing for Israel.

Frustrated after the debates, a number of residents handed over sizeable donations to the charity. During the week, it collected far more than usual, the charity worker remarked.

Al-Dewany additionally sees some hope. She remarked the SD has reached a stage of "peak populism", meaning the party has hit its ceiling. Its focus on immigration while the administration was mired in repatriation scandals has kicked off to cost it voters rather than win them, she believes.

Tokalija, whose partner and co-parent is from Mozambique, remarked she was welcomed with "Swedish warmth" and curiosity concerning other cultures when she first arrived.

Although she still feels this spirit lives on among sizeable sections of today's society, the rhetoric has changed around immigrants. This person are too often painted as "money-seekers".

Society now demands that families like hers "fully adapt", she continued, stripping away their multicultural and Muslim identities, and leaving a choice between total assimilation and total exclusion, a choice she stated mirrors the fascist ideologies she once fled.

Taken together, the developments around 'Not welcome': How Sweden's far right took over Stockholm Central Station point to a situation that is still moving, and the coming days should bring more clarity.