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SWEDEN DEMOCRAT SCANDAL

SWEDEN DEMOCRATS

New clip puts ‘self-defence’ claims in doubt

The three Sweden Democrats who armed themselves with iron pipes in "self-defence" following a scuffle found the incident funny rather than frightening, a previously unpublished video clip of the incident reveals.

New clip puts 'self-defence' claims in doubt

The Sweden Democrats have previously said the were acting to defend themselves from a drunken man with whom they had been arguing after a night out drinking in 2010.

“They felt threatened by a person tied to organized crime,” said party head Jimmie Åkesson to daily Svenska Dagbladet on Thursday, adding that this could be seen in the footage.

But new footage from the incident, published on Friday by the Expressen newspaper, reveals the politicians found the incident humourous, rather than frightening.

The unfolding scandal stems from a video clip displaying bad behaviour by leading party members Kent Ekeroth, Erik Almqvist and Christian Westling, which was first published by Expressen at the beginning of the week.

In the footage, shot by Ekeroth, the three are seen scuffling with an inebriated man, using racist and sexist slurs and arming themselves with iron pipes.

Ekeroth, who was the party spokesman on justice policy, said in an interview with news agency TT on Thursday after announcing he will take a “break” from his responsibilities, that he had only picked up the iron pipe in self-defence, arguing he felt threatened by the drunken man.

“I only held it for a few seconds and then I dropped it,” he told TT.

The man, had hinted to the three politicians that he had connections to OG, or Original Gangsters, a known criminal gang,

“What are you doing? Are you pushing a girl? Do you know what OG does with people like that?” the man is heard saying in the film.

Faced with this, the three men claim they felt threatened enough to arm themselves with iron pipes they found in a nearby street.

However, the new footage released on Friday shows the three men laughing about the inebriated man’s alleged criminal connections.

The sequence was shot just after the man had been detained by police. In the clip, the three Sweden Democrats can be heard laughing about the man’s claims.

“He has nothing to do with them. He just wanted to act cool and say that he had,” Almqvist says in the clip.

The scandal, dubbed SD-Gate by some in the press, has so far caused economic policy spokesman Almqvist to leave his post and justice policy spokesman Ekeroth to take a “break” and continues to dominate the Swedish media.

In addition, the incident has exposed a rift within the party, with some factions criticizing the way party leader Jimmie Åkesson has handled the crisis, with some experts arguing the incident could cause the party to split.

TT/The Local/rm

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POLITICS

Sweden Democrat leader calls for ‘reevaluation’ of Swedish EU membership

The leader of the Sweden Democrats reawakened the spectre of Swexit – Sweden leaving the European Union – on Tuesday penning a debate article which called for a reevaluation of membership.

Sweden Democrat leader calls for 'reevaluation' of Swedish EU membership

“With ever increasing instances of far-reaching gesture politics, EU membership is starting to become dangerous like a straitjacket which we have no choice but to simply accept and adapt to,” Åkesson wrote in an opinion piece in the Aftonbladet newspaper

“This means that German, Polish or French politicians can in practice decide over which car you are going to be allowed to buy, how expensive your petrol should be, or which tree you should be allowed to cut down on your own land.” 

As a result, he said there are “good reasons to properly reevaluate our membership of the union”.  

In the run-up to the UK’s Brexit referendum in 2016, the Sweden Democrats called frequently for Sweden to follow the British example and hold a renegotiation of its relationship with the EU followed by an in-out referendum. 

But in 2019, as the UK struggled to negotiate a satisfactory departure agreement, Åkesson changed his position saying that he now hoped to change the European Union from within

In his article on Tuesday, Åkesson said that power was continually being ceded from Sweden to Brussels. 

“The more that happens, the more the will of the people as reflected in parliamentary results is going to be less and less relevant,” her said. “Our Swedish elections are going to soon become irrelevant to Sweden’s development, and of course, we can’t let that happen.”

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