Nearly 300 Swedish election candidates linked to right-wing extremism
Nearly 300 candidates for Swedish county, municipal and parliamentary elections have expressed racist or neo-Nazi views, according to a new report by the Swedish research company Acta Publica.
Of these, the clear majority of candidates, 214 individuals, were standing for the Sweden Democrats. 22 were Social Democrats, while the Moderates and Christian Democrats had 20 each.
The report, titled Ur mylla brun, ("Out of the brown crowd"), Acta Publica analysed every politician who has stood for election in the last five Swedish elections. Around 1,100 of those standing for parliamentary elections have been linked to right-wing extremist views.
Ahead of the 2022 election, Acta Publica has identified 289 politicians who have expressed neo-Nazi or racist views among Sweden's parliamentary parties.
The candidates were identified for reasons such as membership in neo-Nazi organisations, convictions for hets mot folkgrupp (incitement against an ethnic group), ordering Nazi propaganda, having accounts on right-wing extremist forum Nordisk.nu or writing hateful comments on neo-Nazi websites.
One of the politicians, a Sweden Democrat standing in Gothenburg and the Västra Götaland region, has now dropped out of the election and the party, SVT Nyheter Väst reported.
According to the report, he was part of a demonstration with neo-Nazi organisation NMR, or Nordiska Motståndsrörelsen in Falun in 2017.
"A few days ago I received an email where he left the party and withdrew his candidacy," Jörgen Fogelklou, leader of the Sweden Democrats in Gothenburg, told SVT. "Now I understand why. It's wrong and completely crazy. If we'd known this, he wouldn't have been a member of the party."
Acta Publica identified all individuals on parliamentary party lists in municipal, regional and national elections in 2022, and cross-checked them against the research company's crime databases.
Material from police reports, preliminary investigations and classified information on criminal organisations has also been used to map candidates, as well as the Expo foundation's archive of judgements and criminal investigations.
https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/DkRXm/1/
Comments
See Also
Of these, the clear majority of candidates, 214 individuals, were standing for the Sweden Democrats. 22 were Social Democrats, while the Moderates and Christian Democrats had 20 each.
The report, titled Ur mylla brun, ("Out of the brown crowd"), Acta Publica analysed every politician who has stood for election in the last five Swedish elections. Around 1,100 of those standing for parliamentary elections have been linked to right-wing extremist views.
Ahead of the 2022 election, Acta Publica has identified 289 politicians who have expressed neo-Nazi or racist views among Sweden's parliamentary parties.
The candidates were identified for reasons such as membership in neo-Nazi organisations, convictions for hets mot folkgrupp (incitement against an ethnic group), ordering Nazi propaganda, having accounts on right-wing extremist forum Nordisk.nu or writing hateful comments on neo-Nazi websites.
One of the politicians, a Sweden Democrat standing in Gothenburg and the Västra Götaland region, has now dropped out of the election and the party, SVT Nyheter Väst reported.
According to the report, he was part of a demonstration with neo-Nazi organisation NMR, or Nordiska Motståndsrörelsen in Falun in 2017.
"A few days ago I received an email where he left the party and withdrew his candidacy," Jörgen Fogelklou, leader of the Sweden Democrats in Gothenburg, told SVT. "Now I understand why. It's wrong and completely crazy. If we'd known this, he wouldn't have been a member of the party."
Acta Publica identified all individuals on parliamentary party lists in municipal, regional and national elections in 2022, and cross-checked them against the research company's crime databases.
Material from police reports, preliminary investigations and classified information on criminal organisations has also been used to map candidates, as well as the Expo foundation's archive of judgements and criminal investigations.
https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/DkRXm/1/
Join the conversation in our comments section below. Share your own views and experience and if you have a question or suggestion for our journalists then email us at [email protected].
Please keep comments civil, constructive and on topic – and make sure to read our terms of use before getting involved.
Please log in here to leave a comment.