Voters in Sweden go to the polls today in a general election. Recent opinion polls show support for the far-right Sweden Democrats has reached a record high, looking to topple more than a century of centre-left dominance. Meanwhile, the refugee crisis has created a severe challenge for the top political party, the Social Democrats. It's fuelled a backlash. CGTN's Guy Henderson reports from the country's Scania province.

If Sweden's Scäne province is a bell weather for this coming election, there could be an upset coming. This is the campaign stand for the centre-left Social Democrats, the country's most popular party for more than a century. And here are the far-right Sweden Democrats. Some in the queue have come to challenge them. 

"How does your party view current integration policies?"

"They have failed."

Others are here to voice support.

CORNELIUSSWEDISH VOTER "They are honest - they always say how it is, even if it's bad things, they are still honest."

GUY HENDERSON HASSELHOLM, SCANIA PROVINCE "Since the Sweden Democrats took their first seats in parliament in 2010, all other political parties had shut them out. That hasn't prevented their rise. And last year in southern Skäne province, a centre-right coalition asked for the populists' support in ousting the centre-left council. In return, they were handed the deputy mayor's office."

We meet Patrick Johnsson at a regional government press briefing. It soon becomes clear the modern face of the party is not a moderate one.

Guy: "Do you believe in the concept of multiculturalism at all?" 

Patrick: "No, I don't want any multiculturalism in Sweden. I want it like it was before."

And he has one particular group in mind.

PATRIK JONSSON LEADER, SWEDEN DEMOCRATS SCANIA PROVINCE "You don't rape because you're poor, it's a cultural question: how you see young girls. You force girls to wear burqas for example. I have a daughter, she's 21, for me, it scares me very much, this kind of difference between boys and girls."

Immigration has underpinned most issues on the campaign trail, playing to the Sweden Democrat's strengths. The centre-right opposition are talking tough to meet the challenge.

ULF KRISTERSSON LEADER, MODERATE PARTY "We have some immediate things that need to be done in terms of criminality, in terms of integration, in terms of poor school results."

The incumbents have tried to talk about something else. 

STEFAN LOFVEN LEADER, SOCIAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY "The Sweden Democrats should not get away with conducting right-wing tax politics and think they can have Social Democratic welfare politics. It doesn't work."

Decades of near-consensus are breaking down. 

DANIEL POOHL CEO, EXPO "Our patriotism is not to be nationalists. A moral superpower, that is how we see ourselves, as a rich, modern society. It is increasingly clear that that idea is now cracking down, it's more and more obvious that that is a false self-image."

This vote's been framed as a fight for Swedish identity. One name on the ballot paper offers a radically different one. GH, CGTN, Sweden's Scäne province.