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SWEDEN DEMOCRAT SCANDAL

SWEDEN DEMOCRATS

Third head rolls in Sweden Democrat crisis

Sweden Democrat Christian Westling has stepped down from his political duties in the wake of the scandal surrounding a video featuring two party MPs in a drunken and racist tirade.

Third head rolls in Sweden Democrat crisis

“I’m a bigger liability for my party board than an asset,” Westling told the TT news agency.

He explained that he considered his future with the party on Friday, finally concluding to step down from his political responsibilities.

The footage which prompted Westling’s decision has been published over the course of the week by the Expressen newspaper.

It shows leading party members Kent Ekeroth, Erik Almqvist as well as Westling, harassing a drunk man on the street and calling an intervening woman a “whore”.

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.

On Friday, Westling admitted he and the others in the film had acted inappropriately.

“I regret that I didn’t see what was happening; that I didn’t break it up sooner, that we didn’t get out of there,” he said in reference to the events captured on the controversial video.

“We behaved incorrectly, you can’t behave like that. It’s clear one has to accept the consequences for their actions; that’s part of life as an adult.”

Westling added, however, that he planned to remain an “active member” of the Sweden Democrats. While he doesn’t have a seat in parliament, he has served as an alternate board member for the party in Stockholm as well as a member of the Sweden Democrats’ foreign policy committee.

In a recent post on his own blog, Westling wrote about the situation for homeless people in Stockholm.

“Stockholm can’t take responsibility for other country’s homeless,” he wrote in October.

Westling, 29, describes himself on the opinion website Newsmill as Catholic, nationalist, and an EU opponent.

A poll conducted by Novus for Sweden’s TV4 in the wake of the scandal has found that 40 percent of Swedes have less confidence in the Sweden Democrats, while 33 percent said they had less confidence in Åkesson.

However, 64 percent of respondents who identified themselves as Sweden Democrat voters said the racist video scandal hasn’t affected their view of the party, and 25 percent said the incident had actually increased their confidence for the Sweden Democrat leader and the party.

TT/The Local/dl

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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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