Scouts say no to neo-Nazi camp tenants

A Swedish neo-Nazi political party is planning to gather this weekend in Höör, in southern Sweden, where they are organising a summer camp for their supporters and their families.

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The camp, organised by the right-wing extremist Party of Swedes (Svenskarnas parti), was to be held in a cabin owned by the Swedish Guide and Scout Association (Svenska scoutförbundet), who claim they were tricked when the premises were booked.

According to the Scout Association, the representatives from the Party of Swedes pretended to be from a sports club in Malmö, when they asked to rent the premises.

"It feels awful that a neo-Nazi organisation wil be using our facilities under a fake name," said Erik Sillén, chairman of the Scout Association, to newspaper Kvällsposten.

The Party of Swedes estimate that the summer camp, called Nordic Vision, will receive roughly one hundred visitors.

"We're directing ourselves to people that we consider to be Swedes. People with African names aren't welcome. Adopted children with Swedish names aren't welcome either," said organiser Andreas Carlsson, from the Party of Swedes.

Carlsson has previously described the camp in Swedish media as a way for kids to "have fun", but also adding that everyone will be able to take part in a debate on the Sunday where one of the topics will be “Who is a Swede and who isn’t?”.

The Lund police force were still unaware of hundreds of neo-Nazis' plans to gather in Skåne's woods this weekend, when Kvällsposten spoke with the police station on Thursday.

"I hope and believe that the Swedish Security Services know about this, because that many extremists in the same place is a big security risk. But we have no information about this yet. We're sitting here completely non-plussed, after your phone call," said officer Mats Persson to the newspaper.

The Scout Association is renouncing the party, announcing that they will not permit the camp to be carried out on their premises.

"Our local association has waived the rental agreement," said Erik Sillén to news agency TT.

He underlines that this decision has support from the Scout Association on a national level, and they are planning to back the local association up, in the case of a dispute with the Party of Swedes.

The 10,000 kronor ($1,580) paid in advance by the party will be returned, explains Sillén, who is uncomfortable with the idea of owing money to neo-Nazis.

"That wouldn't feel good. Anyway, they've ordered a service that we won't be delivering, so of course we're returning the money. But this is about values and ideas that the Scouts don't want anything to do with," he told TT.

But the organiser of the event, Andreas Carlsson, told TT that the Party was now searching for another solution.

"It is a little last minute," he told TT.

If no other premises can be found, the party will take legal action in order to be able to use the cabin anyway. According to him, the legal advice they have received so far says they have the law on their side.

Earlier this summer, journalist Johannes Jakobsson of the Swedish magasine Expo, which studies and maps anti-democratic, right-wing extremist and racist tendencies in society, told The Local that there is little doubt about the party's heritage.

“The party leadership is the same as the old National Socialistic Front (National Socialistisk Front – NSF), they represent an ethnic nationalism and they believe in anti-Semitic conspiracy theories,” he said.

According to him, the Party of Swedes party was formerly known as the People's Front (Folkfronten) and was founded by members of the former National Socialist Front (Nationalsocialistisk front - NSF) in November 2008.

At the time it dissolved, NSF was the largest neo-Nazi political party in Sweden. It became a political party on April 20th, 1999, the 110th birthday of Adolf Hitler.