Published 2014-12-14 06:00
Reduced immigration is just one of several means for SD to reach its main objectives: to reshape Sweden to a more nationalistic country.
Samer, Kurds and Jews can live in Sweden – but they are not Swedes, according to SD’s party secretary Björn Söder.
He wants to pay immigrants to leave the country: “It would be great with a repatriation gr ant.”
Reduced immigration is just one of several means for SD to reach its main objectives: to reshape Sweden to a more nationalistic country.
Samer, Kurds and Jews can live in Sweden – but they are not Swedes, according to SD’s party secretary Björn Söder.
He wants to pay immigrants to leave the country: “It would be great with a repatriation grant.”
To the millennium trying to get a Sverigedemokrat was not always easy for a reporter. SD: are rarely called back. Once they answered the phone would sometimes they do not say what they were called.
- This is John Smith, chairman of the SD’s local branch in Trelleborg Koping?
Ad:
- Maybe.
On SD meetings were expressions often clenched. SD: ers were often little threadbare, secret, wary of the outside world. There was explanations. Sweden Democrats were often beaten and kicked from their jobs because of their party affiliation. They did not tell me where the party venue low.
SD bubble was small, and there seemed to be nice to stay there. In the 2002 elections the party got just over one percent of the vote.
I think about it here when I have a December Saturday 2014 to Västerås to guard the largest SD meeting ever. 850 Sweden Democrats have come together to educate themselves in the party’s policies and make decisions about which county and municipal policy that SD will run.
Never before have I seen so many, so relaxed and so happy Sweden Democrats. All of Vasteras hotels are fully booked. Politicians and their families can be seen everywhere in the city center, restaurants, cafés and bars.
The buzz inside the Aros Congress Center is hilarious and expectantly. Banners and posters go in the warm colors that party’s PR people chosen: red, pink, orange and purple. A disc jockey plays tralliga 70′s songs: “Mahna Mahna” from The Muppets and whistling song from Disney’s animated Robin Hood movie. It’s music that evokes feelings of security and joy for many who grew up in the 60s, 70s and 80s – far from it brötiga blue and yellow viking rock in the 1990s inspired several of the party tops to become nationalists.
The party secretary Björn Söder talking about a country built on ” the love of their country. ” Photo: Jonas Lindkvist.
SD bubble has become enormously greater. And less bitter. After the deputy party leader Mattias Karlsson gone on the offensive and shown that SD has muscles to trap a government is the confidence greater than ever. The crowd cheers when Mattias Karlsson in the pulpit reminiscent of the latest opinion poll where SD gets 17.7 percent of voter support:
- Now, the battle for second place in Swedish politics begin in earnest. Now we draw the political map!
The party attracts a different kind of people today: “People who have nothing to lose,” as a SD peak puts it. The new SD politicians are increasingly rarely shy oddballs who only hang out with party colleagues – they can be outgoing citizens who are rooted in the community.
As Ängelholm färske SD Chairman Johan Wifralius. Growing up in an academic environment left, a 44 year old who hung out with his parents in demonstrations against nuclear power plant in Barsebäck as children.
- I am a car salesman and loves to talk to people, he says, and starts to talk about inexperienced team in football as he trains.
Or Aaron Emilsson, one of the party’s young star who lifted up the head of Mattias Karlsson. Born in 1990, MP and culture policy spokesperson. Neat, polite, calm and with a bachelor’s degree in political science and cultural studies in the luggage. On the gentle western Swedish lecture he on SD’s cultural policy for party lovers.
- We have been perceived as too simplistic earlier, he says, talking about investing in municipal music schools, the libraries and on the old station which ought to K-labeled.
It is easy to see SD’s surface and appearance has changed. But what about the contents of the nucleus?
Anyone who continues to listen to Aaron Emilsson soon discovers the party’s uniqueness. Culture is “social divisive” and that seems a multicultural society should not receive tax money, he said.
- We want to remove support for adult culture that has political orientation.
At the same time Aaron Emilsson and SD themselves politicize culture – in the nationalist direction. “The culture will link together Sweden’s past with the present, managing its history and heritage and strengthen the community in community and national identity,” writes the party.
- No other highlights the anthropological dimension of culture. It is about our identity as a people. We draw down funding for contemporary culture and spend more money on cultural heritage, says Aaron Emilsson.
Enthusiastic Sweden Democrats at a conference in Västerås. Photo: Nicklas Thegerström.
Nationalism becomes even clearer when the party secretary Björn Söder speak. South, now the Second Deputy Speaker of the Swedish Parliament, the rock star popular SD grassroots.
Many have waited a long time outside the hall 204 to fix one of the 40 places in his lecture “The party’s ideological foundations”. The organizers forced to open an equally large hall next door, where the sound from Björn Söder seminar can be heard. Both halls are filled immediately.
- String s not! exclaims a woman who queued in vain.
- I can tell you then, comforts a comrade.
2011 dilated SD their ideological label. From being called himself a nationalist party began using the phrase “a social conservative party with nationalist ethos.”
- Our ideology rests on four pillars: democracy, nationalism, conservatism and social justice, says Björn Söder.
SD’s view of democracy differs from other parties, he continues his lecture.
- They weave into other concepts of democracy. Is it against a multicultural society and against a high immigration, one is by their definition anti-Democrat. There you have probably heard, that we are called anti-democrats.
Instämmanden from the audience:
- Mmm.
Democracy means government by the people, continues Björn Söder.
- For democracy to work the consensus on the question of who represents the people. Then we set to nationalism.
Björn Söder instructs their party friends about who belongs to the Swedish people – and which ones do not.
- The fact is that Sweden today houses the other nations. We have, for example, the Sami nation. They are Swedish citizens, but belongs to the Sami nation. We also Tornedal pimples and so on. We accept them. But if it gets too many nations in the nation-state – then there could be problems.
Attentive silence. A mobile phone signal is heard but Björn Söder allow themselves not to be disturbed. He continues to tell about SD’s vision: a country built on “the love of their country.” He quotes the German 1700s philosopher Johann Gottfried Herder, who with his thoughts on a “national soul” is an important motivator for SD:
- Herder said: “There is only one class in the state. The people. The king and the simple peasant both belong to this class. “
This is the central for the Sweden Democrats. The party wants to get beyond left and right. We take the best from both sides, usually SD: ers say. Instead of right-left-martial thinks the party a battle between “value conservative patriots and cosmopolitan culture radicals” which Mattias Karlsson put it this spring in a widely cited Facebook status.
A local politician raises his hand.
- The concept of nationalism is controversial and historically charged. Why is it so important to stick with it?
Björn Söder answers: one should not allow their opponent to win.
– Our opponents want solar down the concept of nationalism. We will not accept. It should be remembered that there were very many in our party thought it was completely wrong that we began to emphasize social conservatism, we are no longer clearly said that we are a nationalist party.
Security, harmony and reduced areas of conflict are key words in Björn Söder’s speech. He describes a warm, caring community where people care about each other because they have the same origin.
When the lecture is over flowing audience up. They want to press Björn Söder hand, take a Selfie with him, tell me how much they like to be SD: ers.
– Can you get to take a card? wondering Incan Lofstedt, local politicians in Nynashamn which describes itself as “a very conservative truck driver.”
Photo: Magnus Hallgren.
Party Secretary’s mood is at its peak. Question on, he says when I ask if he has time with an interview.
Who is it that can not fit in SD’s vision of Sweden?
- We are an inclusive society, so anyone who wants to fit. We have an open Swedishness which also include people with roots abroad. But one must adapt to the Swedish and assimilated to become Swedish.
Do you have to be a nationalist to be part of the Sweden you want to see?
- Absolutely not. I certainly have a lot in common with a liberal who grew up in Sweden – although we have different political views. But we have a unity, we celebrate the same festivals and also has some basic values in common, that the belief in democracy and the rights of women. Therefore, we have a sense of community.
The Swedes who have multiple identities, then? You talking about that we have people from “other nations” living in Sweden.
- Yes. There are, for example, people belonging to the Sami or the Jewish nation in Sweden.
Can not be both a Jew and Swedish, at the same time?
- I think most of Jewish origin that have become Swedes leave their Jewish identity. But they do not do it need not be a problem. One must distinguish between citizenship and nationhood. They can still be Swedish citizens and live in Sweden. Samer and Jews have lived in Sweden for a long time.
The comedian Soran Ismail used to say that he is 100 percent Swedish and 100 percent Kurds. Can not it be?
- I do not think you can, to belong to two nations that way. However, the Kurds be Swedish citizens. The problem is if there will be too many in Sweden who belong to other nations.
This summer, you shared an article from SD newspaper Samtiden on your Facebook page. “Swedes in the minority in Malmö,” read the headline. The contemporaries wrote that people of foreign origin – at least one parent born abroad – more than 50 percent of the population in Malmö. You also wrote that in your FB post: “Swedes are now in the minority in Sweden’s third largest city.” Do you mean that everyone with a foreign-born mother or father is not Swedes?
- Was not that the Swedes were in the minority in the age group under 18?
No, I do not think so [I check later it up: this article is about all the people of Malmö].
- Anyway live there after all many in Malmo that are not Swedes, who are representatives of other nations. Not least, the Arab nation.
What country is the “Arab nation”?
- No, there’s no country that name. Arabs living in several states. It is otherwise desirable that States’ geographical boundaries coincide with people’s spread.
It sounds like how Putin reason when he activates the Russian minorities in Ukraine, Estonia and Latvia.
- The problem there is that the Soviet Union placed great Russian nations in the Baltic States, it was a strategy of taking over. It is an imperial, chauvinistic nationalism that has nothing to SD’s ideology to do.
If many residents of Malmö is not a part of the national community that you and your party want to build – what do you do with them?
- They must adapt and become a part of the Swedish nation. We have an open Swedishness, an individual can become a Swedish regardless of background. But it requires that they assimilated. And the problem with Malmö is that we have brought to many. If it lives very many from other nations together in Sweden, it becomes foreign enclaves in Sweden.
When I listen to you, it sounds as if all that comes from an Arab country alike. But the people of Malmö I know are very different among themselves, even those whose family originated from the same country.
- Sure, it might be so. You and I are also different from each other. But some fundamental value element unites us. We both grew up in Sweden and it has shaped us. If you have a different cultural background are the other things that unite.
Malmo is multicultural and much of the city’s identity lies in that it is an immigrant city. Those who grow up in Malmö today speaks a different Skåne than those who grew up here a few decades ago. More like Zlatan. They grow up in an environment where different cultures mixed together. Is it bad?
- I think many of them will be the identity loose eventually. They will ask: what country belongs to me? It becomes an identity-less society. And obviously there is a problem in Malmo because the economy is so lousy. The rest of the country must keep Malmo forearms in fiscal equalization. Malmö had been so good did not have the problems been so great and so obvious.
You’ve written about Malmo once upon a time, on this particular you tell us now: that you experienced a lack of connectedness and be Swedish. When you were at the Malmö Festival.
Björn Söder big laughs.
- “Silla Mackan”? Yes, that was a bit pathetic text. I was not so old and have well changed and matured since then. Well I was more radical then. It’s often the young.
“Silla Mackan” is a text that Björn Söder published on his blog in the late 90s, when he was in his 20s. It’s about how he was a summer travel by train in Skåne, Malmö. He looks out at the Skåne countryside with farms that under a clear blue sky “looked like palaces and temples.” Björn Söder feel proud, “A proud to be Swedish. Having been born Swedish. To have ancestors who built Sweden. “
Arriving in Malmo deteriorate Björn Söder mood. He gets hungry – but finds only “foreign food” at the festival. “Latin food, tacos, busesca, falafel, Indian matspecialitéer, Thai dishes, Nigerian specialties, kebab.” He is looking for something different. “I had sat me that if I did not find anything Swedish got my belly bear to be hungry.”
And suddenly. As “a small light in the otherwise dark environment” so he sees a sign: “Silla Sandwiches.” Overjoyed, he goes “beyond all garlic fragrant food stalls” and buys its herring sandwich. But soon he will be bleak:
“Outside McDonald’s had dark clouds gathered. By all accounts, it was probably a gathering place or rather a haunt for the whole world of different people, except the Swedes of course. Swedes were gone I do not know, and then we crossed the square and went in on a pedestrian street, it was clear to me that the Swedes had fled the field. Everywhere were big black cloud over it so otherwise clear starry rich firmament. The Sound of the South-American and Indian music mixed with languages from around the world and the feeling that you were in a land far, far away steps in one. Nowhere was a bright cloud to glimpse. Everywhere hung a dark cloud. “
Björn Söder feel sick. “My stomach was turning inside out and the tears started running down my cheek.” He hurries to train to get away from Malmö, from an evening gone from “warm and light” to “dark and cold.”
When Björn Söder in Vasteras reminded of “Silla Mackan” so he thinks that the text is embarrassing.
While you express the – albeit with a melodramatic language – what you are saying now: you do not feel a connection with the characters you see in Malmö. Then I wonder: why can not you feel connected to people in town if they appear to have roots in other countries? You know nothing about them, just the way they look.
- It’s about the whole movement pattern, the way to talk. The social codes may be strange for me.
A bit like when Mattias Karlsson said he saw Zlatan as Swedish?
- Some so. But it was funny thing with Zlatan, that all went in the roof for it. For at the same time, when Mattias answered that question, it was full of journalists and pundits who said how wonderful it was that he was so un-Swedish. Now it’s different. Zlatan is certainly Swedish, if he feels like Swedish. It is a basic requirement.
About the Sweden Democrats had all the power – what would you have done with a multicultural city like Malmö?
- First and foremost would be necessary to tackle the problems without loading new. A stop for the EBO (that asylum seekers are allowed to arrange their own accommodation, ed. Note) and a refugee peak. Then it would be fine with a repatriation grant.
that immigrants should get paid to move back? It proposes SD in Malmö today.
- Yes, and that’s fine. We must make it easier for those considering moving back to their home country. Then we get a better position to create a society of common identity.
Such a contribution is pointing directly out the immigrants problems. They say: it is better that you get out of here. How do you see it?
- Many of them realize ourselves that we can not have so many immigrants in Sweden in such a short time. We get more and more members of the SD with an immigrant background. They agree with this.
I’m not talking about the SD members now, but about others who feel singled out by your policy.
- We have such large groups coming to Sweden now that we need to stop. And besides it easier for people who want to move home. We need to make demands: want you to stay here now so shall you into Swedish society. We need to stop making it easier for people to never get into Swedish society, which provide government information in Arabic and the like. People need to learn Swedish.
How municipal brochures should not be translated into other languages?
- During a transitional period, it may be left. You can not just remove it immediately. It may be phased out, says Björn Söder.
Photo: Per Groth / TT.
A kilometer from the conference center living historian Fredrik Persson-Lahusen. He has recently moved home to his grew up Vasteras from Berlin, where he worked at the Humboldt University. In 2008 he defended his thesis at Lund University with a dissertation on Scanian identity.
Fredrik Persson-Lahusen has his research focuses on nationalism and collective identities. When he read Björn Söder interview answers, he says:
- It Björn Söder expresses here is a radical and consistent nationalism. An uncompromising vision of nationality and community. It becomes extremely clear how different SD is from other Swedish parliamentary parties.
Admittedly, reason Fredrik Persson-Lahusen, says the South to anyone who is prepared to “assimilate” could be Swedish.
- At the same time, he does throughout the interview clear how difficult, if not impossible, it is for an Arab or a Jew to actually usurp the Swedish character.
How seen it, you mean?
- This is most evident when he draws you into the discussion. He says something like: Niklas Orrenius, we may think differently about things. But we share … some sort of vague cultural package. It becomes clear that it is about growing up in Sweden and the parents have.
Fredrik Persson-Lahusen outlines of nationalism two main streams: the French-American and the traditional German.
- In the French view that nationalism is all about the place you live in, citizenship, shared values. In German, the more blood and ground. It’s about your origins. Where it is impossible to get into unless you have the right inheritance. What Björn Söder expresses moves more towards the traditional German view.
Though he says, that one can be a Swedish citizen, even if, as he puts it, belongs to another nation.
- Certainly. It is a pragmatic approach. But later in the interview will ideologue until, when he says that peoples and states borders should be consistent. Here he reveals the radical nationalism essence. And that’s where the concern is.
Why worrisome?
- Just this idea goods has resulted in war and displacement. It is built into it. It always leads to groups singled out as “the enemy in our midst.”
SD is no dissatisfaction party that little public wants to curb immigration and otherwise having the same country as today. “The primary goal of the Sweden Democrats’ policy is to re-establish a common national identity,” it says in the immigration programs SD ideologue Mattias Karlsson took until 2007.
In Fredrik Persson-Lahusens eye works Sweden Democrats long-term and ideologically. There is a widespread inability to see that nationalism is central to the SD’s political project. Certainly, the debate about whether the party is fascist or not important, says Persson Lahusen- but equally important situation is to ensure that the SD to move the entire political discussion toward a more radical nationalism.
Do they succeed?
- They’re actually going to do it. This is particularly noticeable if you look at how the party’s political opponents have chosen to respond to SD’s rampage. Jason “Timbuktu” Diakités speech in parliament, for example, when he took out his Swedish passport and underlined its Swedishness. I understand reflex: you want to see on an alternative nationalism which is better. At the same time highlights nationalism as something important, and that is where the SD wants the discussion.
But there are no examples of good nationalism in history?
- Yes. The struggle for democracy and the right to vote was tied for example to nationalism. Liberals and socialists used the national community as an argument that everyone would get to vote. And when former colonies in Africa and Asia made themselves free so worked nationalism for a moment liberating – but pretty soon afterward led the nationalism that countries stagnated.
Fredrik Persson Lahusen oaks SD ideology of “inter-war radical conservatism, the author of the young Thomas Mann and Ernst Jünger.”
- They had just this rhetoric: that the true and pure have become contaminated with liberalism and cosmopolitanism.
Just when I should leave SD Conference and Västerås, I come up with the party’s deputy leader Mattias Karlsson, mother after speeches and celebrations, meetings and interviews. He was reclining on the sofa and has switched from suit to jeans.
Like almost everyone else Sweden Democrats these days he is on radiant good humor. He talks happily about the house he just bought in a Småland forest.
When you spoke with Jimmie Åkesson last?
- A few days ago. He thinks it’s an interesting turn of events now. He had a vision to disconnect everything with the party – but he gets more and more difficult not to follow what happens, says Mattias Karlsson.
At home in Malmö emailed me Björn Söder his interview answers. I ask him to check so that I misunderstood something.
He will certainly want to take back some, I think when I click “send”. What he says about paying immigrants to leave the country, and that you can not be Jewish and Swedish at the same time … it’s a harder, more radical rhetoric than the SD peaks used publicly in recent years. Björn Söder like to finish his speech to party friends with Per Albin Hansson-quotes: “Sweden for the Swedes – and the Swedes to Sweden!”
Actually, saith Björn Söder actually the same as the previous batch height successor Erik Almqvist told the comedian Soran Ismail that iron pipe night that was Almqvist cases: It is not your country, there is my country.
When the email response from Björn Söder, it turns out that he is satisfied: “You have understood what I said and you will well not go in and clean up too much afterwards.”
SD’s party secretary add a smiley,:).
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