Advertisement

Swedish neo-Nazi booted from local council

TT/The Local/vt
TT/The Local/vt - [email protected]
Swedish neo-Nazi booted from local council

A Swedish neo-Nazi has lost his seat on a local council in Grästorp in western Sweden after authorities discovered that he does not live in the municipality.

Advertisement

According to authorities, Daniel Höglund, the leader of the neo-Nazi Party of Swedes (Svenskarnas parti, SVP), lives in nearby Vänersborg, 25 kilometres northwest of Grästorp, and was subsequently dismissed from the local council on Thursday evening.

"Is he relieved of his duties? Yes, he is," said Grästorp municipal director Ove Johansson.

Even if Höglund, who won his seat in the nationwide general elections on September 19th, wins an appeal in the decision to strip him of his seat, he will not return to the council.

Höglund did not attend many meetings before his residential status was uncovered. He had wanted Thursday's session to be postponed until his appeal was resolved, but the other council members refused.

Immediately after the decision to remove him from office, Höglund stood up and left his seat. As a consequence, the council will hold a by-election to replace Höglund.

In addition to Höglund's vacated position, the Sweden Democrats have not yet appointed a representative to Grästorp's local council.

In the 2010 general elections, the SVP won 102 votes, or 2.8 percent, in the Grästorp municipal elections in western Sweden's Västra Götaland county, giving the party its sole seat in any elected office in Sweden.

The Party of Swedes is described as a neo-Nazi party and views "the current chaos" as a result of democracy. It wishes to replace democracy with another governmental system.

The party is formerly known as the People's Front (Folkfronten) and was founded by members of the former National Socialist Front (Nationalsocialistisk front, NSF), of which Höglund was one of the two leaders, in November 2008.

At the time it dissolved, NSF was the largest neo-Nazi political party in Sweden. It became a political party on April 20th, 1999, the 110th birthday of Adolf Hitler.

The party's win in Grästorp was its first in the country. The last time an extreme-right white nationalist party held elected office in Sweden was nearly 70 years ago during World War Two.

More

Join the conversation in our comments section below. Share your own views and experience and if you have a question or suggestion for our journalists then email us at [email protected].
Please keep comments civil, constructive and on topic – and make sure to read our terms of use before getting involved.

Please log in to leave a comment.

See Also