Political scientists worry about radicalized Nyans

Political scientists believe that the Nyans party can achieve success in the upcoming municipal elections, but at the same time fear that the party may become radicalized.

Andreas Johansson Heinö is a political scientist and publisher at Timbro publishing house, which is linked to the liberal think tank of the same name. He thinks it is “very difficult” to assess Nyan’s potential in advance.

“The difficulty is that Nyans, in principle, exclusively tries to attract the voters who are the most difficult for the opinion institutes to reach. The Doku foundation did a survey in Angered last spring which indicated partly that knowledge of the party is quite low even in the suburbs, and partly that the image of the party was positive among those who knew about it,” writes Andreas Johansson Heinö in an email reply to TT.

But he does not want to completely write off the party’s chances.

“I don’t think it should be ruled out that the party can mobilize enough in strategically selected areas to have a chance at a single mandate to the municipal council in Malmö or Gothenburg. Which in itself would be a great success. But at the national level, they have no chance, this time,” believes Andreas Johansson Heinö.

Mobilize couch potatoes

Maria Solevid is associate professor of political science at the University of Gothenburg.

TT: Are there examples of any party that has previously tried and succeeded in attracting “voter defectors” in immigrant groups?

“I am not aware of any research on this. But we know that SD has been quite good at mobilizing from the sofa, but whether or not Nyans will succeed in the same thing among foreign-born voters, I can’t comment on,” replies Maria Solevid via email.

The political scientists Sten Widmalm and Thomas Persson at Uppsala University mention Nyans in a report on “religiously oriented actors” and write that “the comparison with more extreme political movements is not particularly far-fetched”. They then refer to the Nordic Resistance Movement (NMR), Anti-Fascist Action (Afa), the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP), the pro-Palestinian Group 194, the Muslim Brotherhood and the Muslim Study Association Ibn Rushd.

– The degree of radicalization varies between these groups. But all have radical elements. My view is that Nyans may go in such a direction that they approach the degree of radicalization of some of the groups mentioned, says Sten Widmalm.

Nuance can be radicalized

The report authors base their claim on the fact that party leader Mikail Yüksel and party colleagues advocated in a debate article that Lars Vilk’s artwork Nimis should be burned down.

The party has also argued that the Center for Knowledge and Security (CKS) in Borås, which “works against violent extremism and crime”, should be shut down. The party has also defended Safirskolan, which was closed after it emerged that, among other things, the school conducted gender-segregated teaching, did not welcome students who were menstruating and forced students to participate in prayer.

Sydsvenskan/HD’s recently published review of the party’s 25 candidates in Skåne showed that every fifth candidate spread conspiracy theories or hatred against Jews and Shia Muslims.

– A depressing and alarming development. It shows that it is worse than we feared when we wrote the report at the end of last year, says Sten Widmalm.