Sverigedemokraternas dolda agenda : En kvalitativ innehållsanalys om Sverigedemokraternas användning av politisk whitewashing

The purpose of this essay is to examine how the Swedish Democrats (SD) try to hide their roots of right-wing extremism by the use of political whitewashing to appear as a more established and accepted party in the eyes of society as well as by other members present in parliament. The essay analyzes and compares the party’s party program from different years, the first one from 1989, the year when the first party program was adopted. The theoretical framework of Gunnar Sjöblom acts as a focal point when conducting analysis of the three political arenas, the parliamentary, the internal and the electoral arena, with a specific focus on the electoral arena. The method used to find out how SD have been using political whitewashing is qualitative content analysis. This essay shows how political whitewashing has been used in different ways and is focused on three policy areas where SD has been the center of controversial debates. The analysis showed that SD has been frequently using political whitewashing in an attempt to position themselves as a less extreme party in favor of a more centralized party.