Erdoğan Reaches into Domestic Swedish Politics

„Sweden’s recent parliamentary elections saw Nyans, a fledgling Islamist party, win between a quarter and a third of the vote in parts of Swedish cities with large numbers of Muslim immigrants. The results reflect Sweden’s failure to integrate many of the immigrants who have flooded the country in recent years and are a harbinger of increased Muslim separatism in Swedish towns and cities. The Turkish government can be expected to use the party to further increase its influence over the Turkish diaspora in Sweden.

Nyans (Swedish for “nuance”) was established in August 2019 by Mikail Yüksel, a Swedish politician of Turkish origin, to become “the voice of Muslims” in Sweden. The party’s Muslim identitarian platform seeks to criminalize “Islamophobia,” prohibit bans on Islamic veils in schools and restrict freedom of expression to outlaw burning the Qur’an.“ (…)