Swedish politician Jimmie Akesson told me about what he believes is the defining challenge now confronting Western democracies, and why Sweden’s experience should serve as a cautionary tale.

When I asked Akesson, who has led the Sweden Democrats since 2005, to identify the greatest threat facing the West, he did not hesitate. “Well, it’s the radical Islam. That’s the toughest thing, I think, and the worst threat we have from outside,” he said.

Speaking to me in Jerusalem at the International Conference on Combating Antisemitism, Akesson argued that Europe has left itself exposed through years of misplaced priorities and political complacency. He said governments had poured money into fashionable causes while neglecting the fundamentals of security and social order.

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“Europe has been quite lazy. We have done a lot of things, spent much money on feminism and climate activism and so on, but we have no military, no internal defence. We have no money for the police,” he said. That failure, he added, is “why we have many problems with gangs and organised crime and Islamism”.

I then asked what Sweden, in particular, has experienced as a result of mass migration and the importation of radical ideologies. Akesson pointed to a dramatic rise in criminal networks. “It is gang crime, organised crime, mafia structures and Islamism,” he said, explaining that these problems have been entrenched for years.

Although the Sweden Democrats are not formally part of government, Akesson said his party has played a key role in shaping policy since a change of leadership three years ago. “We support the government. We are like motors of reforms,” he said. With elections just eight months away, he added, “we will do even more”.

With his party polling around 20 to 22 per cent, numbers comparable to alternative conservative movements in countries like One Nation in Australia, I asked why there has been such a shift among voters. Akesson said it is driven by lived experience. “More and more citizens and voters can see what is happening. It comes close to them, close to their neighbour,” he said. “Children are attacked in schools.” He also pointed to growing debates in Sweden around aged care and social cohesion, particularly where migrant labour is involved.

For those who remain apathetic or unwilling to acknowledge the scale of the problem, Akesson had a stark message. “They have to open their eyes. They have to see reality as it is,” he said. “You don’t have to be a racist or xenophobic to criticise mass immigration.” He warned that large-scale migration from distant countries “has always been a problem, and it will be a problem”.