Communications chief leaves job over 'whore' video
The communications head of Sweden’s centre-right Moderate party has left his position after a scandal erupted when one of his staff members called a Swedish minister a ‘whore’ on a live Youtube video.
The controversy started on Thursday when Delmon Haffo was fired from his job as digital communicator for the Moderate office in Stockholm after he made a derogatory comment about Social Service Minister Annika Strandhäll on camera, without realizing the video was being streamed live on Youtube.
Haffo referred in the video to a Twitter argument which started when Strandhäll commented on a friend’s Facebook page after they joked that men’s voting rights should be withdrawn following Donald Trump’s election as the next US president. Several people were also heard laughing in the background.
“Annika Strandhäll, it was not okay to joke about men’s right to vote. Go to hell, you whore,” Haffo said to the camera in the Youtube clip.
Haffo’s superior, Moderate communications director Per Nilsson, has now left his post as comms chief, party secretary Tomas Tobé revealed on Friday afternoon.
“Per Nilsson was not in the room, but has failed in leadership,” Tobé explained.
In a Facebook post on Friday, Nilsson accepted that “actions have consequences”:
“What happened was unacceptable, offensive, and serious. I was not in the office when it happened, but as the manager responsible, I myself and no one else is ultimately responsible.”
Handlingar får konsekvenser. Moderaternas digitala kommunikationsarbete behöver en nystart. Jag är mot bakgrund av...
Posted by Per Nilsson on Friday, 18 November 2016
Nilsson will retain his other position as the party’s chief analyst. The three employees heard laughing in the background of the video have also been given warnings after “serious talks” with party secretary Tobé.
“In the party I lead no one calls anyone a whore, no matter which party they are from or where they come from,” Moderate leader Anna Kinberg Batra said about the incident.
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The controversy started on Thursday when Delmon Haffo was fired from his job as digital communicator for the Moderate office in Stockholm after he made a derogatory comment about Social Service Minister Annika Strandhäll on camera, without realizing the video was being streamed live on Youtube.
Haffo referred in the video to a Twitter argument which started when Strandhäll commented on a friend’s Facebook page after they joked that men’s voting rights should be withdrawn following Donald Trump’s election as the next US president. Several people were also heard laughing in the background.
“Annika Strandhäll, it was not okay to joke about men’s right to vote. Go to hell, you whore,” Haffo said to the camera in the Youtube clip.
Haffo’s superior, Moderate communications director Per Nilsson, has now left his post as comms chief, party secretary Tomas Tobé revealed on Friday afternoon.
“Per Nilsson was not in the room, but has failed in leadership,” Tobé explained.
In a Facebook post on Friday, Nilsson accepted that “actions have consequences”:
“What happened was unacceptable, offensive, and serious. I was not in the office when it happened, but as the manager responsible, I myself and no one else is ultimately responsible.”
Handlingar får konsekvenser. Moderaternas digitala kommunikationsarbete behöver en nystart. Jag är mot bakgrund av...
Posted by Per Nilsson on Friday, 18 November 2016
Nilsson will retain his other position as the party’s chief analyst. The three employees heard laughing in the background of the video have also been given warnings after “serious talks” with party secretary Tobé.
“In the party I lead no one calls anyone a whore, no matter which party they are from or where they come from,” Moderate leader Anna Kinberg Batra said about the incident.
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