Even in Sweden, he noted, which has been the European country most open to Syrian refugees and asylum seekers, the anti-immigration, anti-European Union Sweden Democrats are now ahead of the two largest parties in the opinion polls with about 25 percent

Just want to point out, that this was in a single Yougov poll. And Yougov does not start with getting a population sample, they rely on people registering for their web panel and supplying the correct information so that they can pull a sample from it. That makes it both statistically unreliable and vulnerable for coups.

The other polls has the Sweden Democrats around 18%, which is bad enough.

I don't think the current refugee crisis will benefit the Sweden Democrats though. The last week has shifted the focus away from the Sweden Democrats vs the rest of the parties to pro-refugee groups vs the government, which lands the Sweden Democrats on the sidelines.