SD top: The headscarf ban cost us young voters

For the first time, the Sweden Democrats have experienced what it's like to back down in a parliamentary election. The loss among the youngest voters is particularly clear, where support, according to SVT's Valu, fell from 22 to 15 percent.

Tobias Andersson, who previously led the party's youth association Ungsvenskarna, thinks young people are the most important voter group that SD needs to win back. And he has an idea as to why they lost among them in the election. The proposal for a headscarf ban, which SD put forward in June, was designed too poorly and became a problem in the meeting with young people, he believes.

- It's a matter of burka and niqab. But the veil in particular is so common in Sweden today, he says.

Discussed internally

According to Andersson, the issue was particularly difficult for young voters who were otherwise close to SD politically.

- They may have problems with rowdy immigrant boys, but not with that veiled girl.

He says that the issue was discussed internally at a meeting after the election.

- I don't think there was any district chairman who didn't think the craft debate took too much focus.

Widespread electoral movement

But the veil ban was not the only problem, according to Andersson. He thinks that the election campaign was generally too little about substantive issues and that SD had difficulty sticking to a few clear issues.

- We could have tried to be better at finding a common thread, a few issues that were communicated more persistently around, he says.

Tobias Andersson about the petting

Tobias Andersson led the Riksdag's business committee last term, but now SD has changed and Andersson lost that job. Instead, he became the party's second name in the education committee. He says he understands the move has been described as a poke.

Are you disappointed?

- I have not wanted to sit on the education committee. I enjoyed myself in the nutrition committee. But the education committee has many important questions, he says.

Jimmie Åkesson, however, gives a different picture of the refurnishing. In a debate article in Expressen, the SD leader refutes the information that he would have poked someone.

Should SD abandon the demand for ministerial posts? And does Jimmie Åkesson still have a chance to become prime minister in 2030? See the interview with Tobias Andersson on SVT Play.