Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK

SWEDEN DEMOCRATS

Politician leaves Sweden Democrats after referencing Olof Palme murder in social media post

A local politician with Sweden’s far-right Sweden Democrats (SD) has left the party after making a social media post that referred to the assassination of former prime minister Olof Palme.

Published: 20 January 2019 15:51 CET
Politician leaves Sweden Democrats after referencing Olof Palme murder in social media post
File photo: Vilhelm Stokstad/TT

The politician, who is from a municipality in Värmland, was relieved of his political duties after posting on Facebook a picture with the accompanying text “Christer Pettersson, where are you when Sweden needs you?”

Christer Pettersson was in 1988 convicted for the murder of Palme, but was acquitted on appeal the following year.

Palme, a Social Democrat prime minister who was in office from 1969-76 and from 1982 until his death, was assassinated in February 1986 after being fatally shot in the back.

The Facebook post in question was made after the confirmation of Stefan Löfven, also a Social Democrat, as prime minister after a parliamentary vote on Friday.

The SD politician is reported to have told broadcaster SVT that he meant the post as a joke, but the local party leadership appears to have taken the matter seriously.

In a press statement, SD district chairperson Runar Filper wrote that he had spoken to the local politician behind the post, and agreement had been reached for his political assignments with the party to be terminated.

“He accepts the consequences of this inappropriate and ill-advised Facebook post and is leaving politics with immediate effect,” the press release stated.

READ ALSO: Stefan Löfven voted back in as Swedish prime minister 

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.

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.

Published: 2 May 2023 15:36 CEST
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.”

SHOW COMMENTS