Votes for NMR in School Election – Now Students Will Learn About Democracy and Human Rights

The Nordic Resistance Movement received 4.7 percent of the votes when students at Campus Manilla on Djurgården in Stockholm took part in this year’s school election. In response, the school will implement special initiatives focused on democracy, human rights, and Nazism. At the same time, the school administration states that several students may have voted for NMR as a joke.

The results from this year’s school election have attracted attention after Campus Manilla stood out with an unusually high level of support for the Nordic Resistance Movement (NMR). In total, 14 students cast their vote for the organization. Out of the 310 votes cast, this corresponds to just over 4.5 percent, while the proportion of valid votes reached 4.7 percent. It was the highest share for NMR at any participating school.

At the national level, support was significantly lower. NMR received about 0.08 percent of the votes in the school election where just over 413,000 lower and upper secondary school students took part. The MUCF’s compilation also shows that this year’s school election saw the highest number of voters and highest participation rate since 2002.

At Campus Manilla, the school leadership has received information that a large number of the 14 students voted for NMR as a joke or to provoke. School director Martin Malmberg told TV4 that a large group of students from the same class coordinated their votes.

At the same time, the school administration states that they have not seen any clear trend of right-wing extremist opinions among the students. Malmberg has, however, emphasized that the result must be taken seriously, and that the school now faces significant follow-up work.

Discussion and Education

According to the information now available, the school will follow up with the class where several of the NMR votes were cast. The focus will not be on singling out individual students, but rather on working with the whole group. The school has also informed parents about the incident and plans discussions and lessons on democracy, human rights, and political ideologies.

The educational content will also be reviewed. Among other things, the school will assess how teaching in history and civics provides students with knowledge about fascism and Nazism. In lower secondary school, these issues will be addressed more broadly, rather than holding individual students accountable for how they voted.

The Moderates Largest Party

In the national school election, the Moderates clearly became the largest party with 32.7 percent of the votes. The Social Democrats came in second with 19.3 percent, followed by the Sweden Democrats at 13.8 percent and the Left Party at 12.1 percent.

The Green Party received 7.5 percent and the Centre Party 6.1 percent, while the Christian Democrats and Liberals fell below the parliamentary threshold at 3.0 and 1.2 percent respectively.

In total, just over 413,000 lower and upper secondary school students participated in this year’s school election—the highest number ever.