Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK
For members

DISCRIMINATION

LIST: Sweden’s biggest seven ‘me-too’ cases

The Christian Democrats' former Party Secretary Johan Ingerö, who was dismissed on Tuesday with immediate effect, is the most senior politician in Sweden to lose his job to a sexual misconduct allegation since the 'me too' movement exploded in 2017. Here's a quick recap of 'me too' in Sweden.

Published: 15 March 2023 16:27 CET
LIST: Sweden's biggest seven 'me-too' cases
Jean-Claude Arnault, the cultural promoter, was arguably the most high-profile figure to be jailed as a result of the 'me-too' movement in Sweden. Photo: Fredrik Sandberg/TT

The ‘me-too’ movement broke out after a report on the extent of sexual assault accusations against the film producer Harvey Weinstein in 2017, and saw women across the world name-and-shame high-profile people in politics they accused of behaving sexually inappropriately, sexually assaulting, or sexually harassing them. 

In Sweden, as elsewhere, the movement has had by far its biggest impact in the cultural sphere. We look at some of the biggest cases. 

POLITICS 

Tomas Eneroth (Social Democrats)

The former Social Democrat infrastructure minister, Tomas Eneroth, was in November 2021 accused of groping a female colleague at a party congress. Eneroth apologised for making his accuser uncomfortable and said he had not intended to touch her inappropriately. 

Eneroth’s home district in the Social Democratic party investigated that accusation and decided not to take any action against Eneroth. 

A public prosecutor dropped the case after interviewing witnesses present, saying that the contact had been “a fleeting touch” that could not be considered sexual harassment.

Kjell Ekelund (Social Democrats). 

Kjell Ekelund, a Social Democrat regional politician in Jönköping, was found guilty in court and fined for slapping a party colleague’s bottom during a party conference in 2022. Carina Ödebrink, the regional chair of the Social Democrats, only called on him to step down after he was found guilty, but he was not expelled from the party. 

Peter Lundgren (Sweden Democrats) 

The former Sweden Democrat MEP Peter Lundgren announced that he was leaving his party in March 2022, after he was found guilty of sexually molesting a party colleague in a hotel room three-and-a-half years previously. 

“After talks with Peter Lundgren we have come to a decision that the judgement in the high court makes it impossible for him to represent the party. He is therefore going to leave his membership in the party,” Sweden Democrat press secretary Christian Krappedal told TT. 

The Sweden Democrats party took no action to expel Lundgren until he was found guilty in court. He continued in his role as an independent MEP. 

CULTURE

Jean-Claude Arnault and the Nobel crisis

The accusations against Jean-Claude Arnault, the French husband of Katarina Frostenson, a senior member of the Swedish Academy, caused the award of the Nobel Price in Literature to be postponed for a year, and ended with Arnault being jailed for rape. 

The accusations against Arnault were first published in a series of articles in the Dagens Nyheter newspaper in which some 13 women, most of them anonymous, came forward to accuse Arnault, who had significant power in Sweden’s literary world through his cultural club Forum, of aggressive and inappropriate sexual behaviour, and even rape. 

One of the women later reported him for rape to the police, and he was found guilty both in Stockholm District Court and when the case went to appeal at the High Court. 

Martin Timell 

The Swedish TV presenter Martin Timell was removed by the broadcaster TV4 from the programmer Äntligen hemma (finally home) in 2017 after he was accused of sexual harassment, and the channel later stopped any work with Timell. 

Timell was reported for rape in November 2017, and was found innocent of all charges both in court and at appeal.  He received 8.9m kronor in damages from TV4. 

Benny Frederiksen 

Frederiksen was CEO and theatre chief at Stockholm City Theatre. He resigned in December 2017 after he was hit by accusations of presiding over a culture of sexual harassment at the theatre. He committed suicide in March 2018, after which a preliminary report from the investigation the theatre launched into the allegations concluded that there were in fact no one at the theatre had accused him of sexually inappropriate behaviour. 

Fredrik Virtanen

After Jean-Claude Arnault, Sweden’s most high-profile ‘me-too’ case have been that against the culture journalist Fredrik Virtanen. 

Cissi Wallin, an actress and feminist commentator, on October 16th 2017, accused Virtanen of raping her in 2006, even though she had reported the alleged rape to the police in 2011 and the case had been laid down. 

Virtanen was first suspended from his job at Aftonbladet, then deprived of his column, and then fired. 

In January 2018, Virtanen sued Wallin for libel. She was found guilty, fined, and ordered to pay Virtanen 80,000 kronor in damages. When she appealed, Sweden’s high court increased the damages to 100,000 kronor. 

Member comments

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

POLITICS

‘Very little debate’ on consequences of Sweden’s crime and migration clampdown

Sweden’s political leaders are putting the population’s well-being at risk by moving the country in a more authoritarian direction, according to a recent report.

Published: 29 April 2024 08:56 CEST
'Very little debate' on consequences of Sweden's crime and migration clampdown

The Liberties Rule of Law report shows Sweden backsliding across more areas than any other of the 19 European Union member states monitored, fuelling concerns that the country risks breaching its international human rights obligations, the report says.

“We’ve seen this regression in other countries for a number of years, such as Poland and Hungary, but now we see it also in countries like Sweden,” says John Stauffer, legal director of the human rights organisation Civil Rights Defenders, which co-authored the Swedish section of the report.

The report, compiled by independent civil liberties groups, examines six common challenges facing European Union member states.

Sweden is shown to be regressing in five of these areas: the justice system, media environment, checks and balances, enabling framework for civil society and systemic human rights issues.

The only area where Sweden has not regressed since 2022 is in its anti-corruption framework, where there has been no movement in either a positive or negative direction.

Source: Liberties Rule of Law report

As politicians scramble to combat an escalation in gang crime, laws are being rushed through with too little consideration for basic rights, according to Civil Rights Defenders.

Stauffer cites Sweden’s new stop-and-search zones as a case in point. From April 25th, police in Sweden can temporarily declare any area a “security zone” if there is deemed to be a risk of shootings or explosive attacks stemming from gang conflicts.

Once an area has received this designation, police will be able to search people and cars in the area without any concrete suspicion.

“This is definitely a piece of legislation where we see that it’s problematic from a human rights perspective,” says Stauffer, adding that it “will result in ethnic profiling and discrimination”.

Civil Rights Defenders sought to prevent the new law and will try to challenge it in the courts once it comes into force, Stauffer tells The Local in an interview for the Sweden in Focus Extra podcast. 

He also notes that victims of racial discrimination at the hands of the Swedish authorities had very little chance of getting a fair hearing as actions by the police or judiciary are “not even covered by the Discrimination Act”.

READ ALSO: ‘Civil rights groups in Sweden can fight this government’s repressive proposals’

Stauffer also expresses concerns that an ongoing migration clampdown risks splitting Sweden into a sort of A and B team, where “the government limits access to rights based on your legal basis for being in the country”.

The report says the government’s migration policies take a “divisive ‘us vs them’ approach, which threatens to increase rather than reduce existing social inequalities and exclude certain groups from becoming part of society”.

Proposals such as the introduction of a requirement for civil servants to report undocumented migrants to the authorities would increase societal mistrust and ultimately weaken the rule of law in Sweden, the report says.

The lack of opposition to the kind of surveillance measures that might previously have sparked an outcry is a major concern, says Stauffer.

Politicians’ consistent depiction of Sweden as a country in crisis “affects the public and creates support for these harsh measures”, says Stauffer. “And there is very little talk and debate about the negative consequences.”

Hear John Stauffer from Civil Rights Defender discuss the Liberties Rule of Law report in the The Local’s Sweden in Focus Extra podcast for Membership+ subscribers.

SHOW COMMENTS