Stockholm (AFP) - As immigration to Sweden soars, the far-right Sweden Democrats have topped an opinion poll for the first time, illustrating growing hostility to refugees and beggars in a country known for its open-arms policy.
With a cradle-to-grave welfare state, a reputation for tolerance, a healthy economy, and a job market, Sweden is a favoured destination for the record number of migrants fleeing conflicts, authoritarian regimes and poverty worldwide.
The Scandinavian country has in recent years thrown open its doors to Syrians, Eritreans, Somalis, Afghans and Iraqis, to name a few.
It welcomed 80,000 refugees last year, shouldering the biggest burden in the EU as a proportion of its population of 9.7 million.
But one in four Swedes appears to disagree with the generous immigration policy: 25.2 percent of voters now support the Sweden Democrats, according to a Yougov poll published in Metro on Thursday that questioned 1,527 people.
That placed the party ahead of Prime Minister Stefan Lofven's Social Democrats, which garnered 23.4 percent, and the opposition conservative Moderates, credited with 21 percent.
The Sweden Democrats, with roots in the country's most radical extreme right, entered parliament in 2010 with the ambition of curbing Sweden's immigration and refugee policy. ...
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