– Men stuerene blir dere aldri!

In 1999, Danish Prime Minister Poul Nyrup Rasmussen remarked, "The right-wing parties will never sit in government!" The Danish People's Party (Dansk Folkeparti) grew into a significant force, often serving as a support party for center-right governments across Europe. Many right-wing parties have become established parts of party landscapes in various countries, sometimes even forming governments.

Being not the party in power is akin to being politically insane, for they never infiltrate the house. Such parties represent a threat to liberal democracy, not a part of it. They are often fascist, communist, Nazi, or other extreme variants. It may seem distant now, but the Progress Party in Norway was once a party no one would sit with in government.

When it entered government in 2013, many international media outlets reported that Norway's anti-immigrant party had gained power. Some also mentioned that a 22nd July terrorist was a member at one point. Survivors of Utøya were deeply concerned, wrote The Guardian, a British newspaper, illustrated with a large image of Siv Jensen.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, the same happened with Rød. The party has roots in the AKP (m-l), a far-left, Marxist, and Stalinist political cult that included dictators and believed the working class needed to carry out a violent revolution. Party leader Jonas Gahr Støre admitted as late as 2018 that he shared more in common with Erna Solberg than Rød.

Despite this, forces within the party had been working for years to make Rød a regular party whose democratic sentiments were not questioned. It was a rigorous process, and the party had to regularly face confrontation with the historical atrocities of communism. The moment came when the change was credible. The questions stopped coming.

Even the whiff of the violent romanticism of the extreme left could still surface, especially among Rød Youth. However, today, Rød is a support party for Ap, and it doesn't seem unreasonable that they might enter government again. This does not mean that everyone likes the party. Implementing their radical socialism would still be an economic and security disaster for Norway.

But they are a left-wing radical party within the established democratic framework. Marie Sneve Martinussen is not a threat to the parliamentary democracy. She is part of it. Is the same happening with the hard right parties in Europe? On Sunday, Sweden goes to the polls. If the center-right parties win, the Sweden Democrats (SD) could, for the first time, find themselves in government.

They literally have roots in extreme and neo-fascist environments. Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's party is a direct heir to neo-fascism after World War II. In France, Jean-Marie Le Pen's party was tainted with Vichy revisionism (after the Vichy regime that collaborated with the Nazis), anti-Semitism, and hard-line efforts to preserve France's old colonies.

All these parties have authoritarian and anti-democratic roots. Yet, they have long sought to moderate themselves. Critics argue it is merely superficial: underneath, there still lies the old fascism. The conclusion is simple. Jean-Marie Le Pen's daughter, Marine, distanced herself from her father, who founded the party. After Russia's invasion of Ukraine, she had to distance herself from her link to Putin.

She has shed her most radical anti-EU policy. Jimmy Åkesson's large project has been to make the Sweden Democrats electable. They now need to remove their most extreme elements. For Swedes, the extreme factions are not the mainstream – and they are quite fond of their democracy. For four years, SD has been a support party for the Swedish government.

Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has surprised many, including Aftenposten commentator Christina Pletten, after strongly warning her four years ago. She asked the question last week if Europe "needed a raving madman" like Meloni. Of course, we must question whether these changes are genuine, and we must keep asking. For a party like the Sweden Democrats, any extreme wording or flirtation with conspiracy theories would discredit them.

I too am concerned about the growth of these parties, but at some point, it must be possible to be the party in power. This does not mean the political debate ends. In fact, it means it begins for real.