The party supports same-sex marriage, civil unions for gay couples, and gender-affirming surgery but prefers that children be raised in a traditional nuclear family and argues that churches or private institutions should have the final say on performing a wedding over the state.

Support for the Sweden Democrats has grown steadily since the 1990s and the party crossed the 4% threshold necessary for parliamentary representation for the first time during the 2010 Swedish general election, polling 5.7% and gaining 20 seats in the Riksdag.

[32][51] According to Expo, it is generally agreed that the Sweden Democrats have never been a neo-Nazi party,[52] although some of the SD's early members and founders had previously been connected with Swedish fascist and white nationalist groups.

[66] The SD also encountered controversy for some of its early policy ideas before 1999, which included a proposal to repatriate most immigrants who came to Sweden from 1970, banning adoption of foreign born children and reinstating the death penalty.

[122] During the election, the SD campaigned to reduce asylum migration close to zero, stricter policies on work permits, lower energy bills and a tougher stance on gang violence with longer prison sentences.

[153] Sweden-based British journalist Richard Orange noted in 2018 that the SD stands out due to its neo-Nazi roots but in the present is comparably less extreme than other European populist forces and now endorses more inclusive "cultural nationalism" over ethnic homogeny while calling for stricter immigration policies.

[140] In 2022, British political scientist Matthew Goodwin described the SD as having transformed itself from an extreme past to becoming part of a broader European family of national-populist parties which combine social and cultural conservative nationalism and populism but are opposed to fascist, anti-democratic and revolutionary ideas.

[181] In 2023, SD leader Jimmie Åkesson argued that Swedish mosques which preach "anti-democratic, anti-Swedish, homophobic, anti-Semitic propaganda" should be closed and demolished and expressed opposition to the construction of new Islamic buildings.

[190] The Sweden Democrats also call for an expansion of circumstances in which citizenship can be revoked from naturalized citizens, with Jimmie Åkesson mentioning individuals who commit crimes, welfare and visa fraud, show poor moral character by supporting violence, deliquency and terrorism or are unintegrated into society.

[130] The party also supports giving priority to cases of persecuted Christian, former Muslim and other religious or sexual minorities fleeing war or death for apostasy believing that such individuals are less likely to be offered refuge elsewhere.

It also calls on Europe to commonly adopt a migration system based on the Australian model to prevent human trafficking across the Mediterranean which the party states enables illegal immigrants and terrorists to reach Sweden.

[214] The party today fully supports legalization of same-sex marriage and civil unions for gay couples but believes the ultimate decision to perform a wedding ceremony should be decided by the individual religious institution rather than the state.

[217][218][219][220] A blog post claiming Stockholm Pride sexualised young children and equating homosexuality with pedophilia titled Botten måste snart vara nådd (Soon enough we'll hit rock bottom) was published by SD Party secretary Björn Söder on 1 August 2007.

[255][256] The party opposed the Paris agreement,[256] and advocates keeping nuclear power plants as a prominent energy source in Sweden,[257] believing it to be an efficient way to mitigate climate change.

[279][280] The party has also taken a strongly pro-Israel position following the outbreak of the 2023 Israel-Hamas war, supporting military action to remove Hamas and calling on the Swedish government to review all funding to Palestinian organizations which the SD accuse of spending aid money on terrorism.

SD states that the unit is intended to handle internal issues within the party, including cybersecurity, to marshal public events and to encourage members to report external threats to the police.

[299] In recent years, politicians of ethnic minority and immigrant backgrounds have become increasingly active in the party, with notable examples including Nima Gholam Ali Pour,[305] Kent Ekeroth, Sara Gille[306] and Rashid Farivar.

[334] However, the Sweden Democrats later softened its stance against Fidesz and said it was open to working with the party in the European Parliament, but maintained it would not cooperate with Alternative for Germany and cast doubt on an alliance with the French National Rally.

[355] Swedish political journalist Hanne Kjöller argued that attempts to censor the SD in 2010 by the media and left-wing protest groups ultimately backfired and ended up emboldening their support by giving them more publicity.

[356][357][358] After the Danish daily newspaper Jyllands-Posten published twelve cartoons depicting Muhammad and ignited a controversy during the 2005 autumn and winter, the Sweden Democrats gave their unreserved support to the publication with reference to the freedom of speech.

However, after the controversy erupted, Jimmie Åkesson issued a statement on SD's website on 9 February 2006, stating that they would refrain from further publications online and in print, due to concerns that publishing might spur hostile actions against Swedes and Swedish interests.

[378] In November 2013, parliamentarian and then vice party leader Jonas Åkerlund gained attention for having called immigrants "parasites" during a broadcast on SD's own radio station in 2002, after the recording was publicly rediscovered.

[379] In September 2014, the party chairman of the local Stockholm branch, Christoffer Dulny was asked to resign from his position after it was found he had previously posted mocking comments about immigrants, calling them "shameless liars" on alternative media sites.

Whilst at a party believed to have been organized by the neo-Nazi group Info-14 in 2011 when Sjöstedt was a member of the SD's youth wing, he laughingly told a story about former co-workers with Nazi sympathies mocking Jews and comparing them to sheep.

The email, which had been leaked from the party's internal servers, for instance contained phrases that named black football players from the team Landskrona BoIS as "niggers" whilst also picturing Romani people as thieves.

[388] In December 2016, the parliamentarian Anna Hagwall was thrown out of the party after using arguments associated with antisemitism to argue for a bill that she introduced in parliament intended to reduce concentration of media ownership in Sweden.

[396][397] Researcher on Nordic nationalism Benjamin R. Teitelbaum described the present day version Sweden Democrats as paradoxical compared to other European nationalist parties on the issues of racism and radicalism among its members.

[139] Similar observations were made by British conservative author Douglas Murray who described the SD as undergoing one of the most significant transformations on the European political right from a party on the fringes that openly pushed extreme tendencies to a more mainstream movement that draws on diverse support.

On May 7, 2024, one month prior to the 2024 EU elections, the TV4 investigative journalism program Kalla fakta ('Hard Facts') premiered a two-part documentary (Undercover i trollfabriken [sv], 'Undercover in the Troll Factory')[403] revealing that the Sweden Democrats systematically used anonymous accounts on social media platforms such as TikTok, X and Facebook.

The documentary revealed that at least 23 anonymous social media accounts were actually run from SD's communications department, spreading xenophobic content and satirical attacks on opposing politicians from other parties, including deepfake videos.