The presence of radical right-wing populist parties (RRP-parties)
and their emerging support have created a discussion concerning the
responses of the political establishment towards these parties. The
paper focuses on the Swedish context and the strategic approaches
taken by the Social Democratic party and the Moderate party towards
the Swedish RRP-party the Sweden Democrats. The paper discusses
why the content of the strategic approaches towards the Sweden
Democrats have changed and why the specific issue politicized by
the Sweden Democrats, i.e. the immigration- and refugee issue, have
become central in the formation of the strategic approaches used by
the two established parties.