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.