Political party wants to see Sweden’s wolves ‘eliminated’

The Nature Democrats (Naturdemokraterna), as they’re calling themselves, hope to get a foot into the Riksdag, thereby getting influence over Swedish predator policy.

The news caused strong reactions, and the debate between wolf defenders and wolf critics has been vicious on several internet forums.

This caused one of the initiators, Gunilla Grönvall, to back down from the party’s demand to eliminate the wolf, in an interview with daily newspaper Dagens Nyheter.

“We want a zero-tolerance policy in populated areas of the countryside, let’s put it that way. But to say that we want to shoot all wolves would be be brutal,” she said to the newspaper.

But according to the Nature Democratic head, hunter Marcus Werjefeldt, the original party line hasn’t changed.

“We don’t want to eradicate wolves. We just don’t want them in Sweden,” he said to TT.

Werjefeldt doesn’t have a clear idea on how to best get the wolves out of the country, but maintains that policies need to change.

“This is all about getting a new predator policy.”

Werjefeldt is surprised that the single-issue party has sparked so much attention.

“It can’t be news that there are people who don’t want wolves,” he said.