Swedes' blonde only school photo goes viral
A protest school photo by Swedish students to highlight the anti-immigration polices of the Sweden Democrats has generated a storm on social media.
Pupils at the Hulebäcks secondary school outside Gothenburg decided to make a statement in their annual class photo. When the time arrived to take the picture only three of 25 strong class showed up.
The trio appeared in the shot with a student holding a sign saying 'Jimmie sent the rest home' in protest against the nationalist policies advocated by the Sweden Democrats' leader Jimmie Åkesson.
Most of the class come from immigrant backgrounds, so the three blonde haired students appear amidst a row of empty chairs.
"We had two serious proposals for the picture. One was that we were going to dress up as Star Wars characters and the second was to do something more drastic, something that would stand out from the crowd," Patricia Spång Lundahl, who is pictured holding the sign, told Sweden's Aftonbladet newspaper.
The teenager added the class were taking a stand against the Sweden Democrats, which claimed over 800,000 votes in last September's election.
The party is temporarily being led by Parliamentary group leader Mattias Karlsson, while Jimmie Åkesson is on sick leave.
How the Sweden Democrats went mainstream
"We are not sympathetic to their policies and their way of looking at people. In other words we are against racism and for equality," said 18-year-old Spång Lundahl.
Since being picked up by the Swedish media the picture has gone viral generating over 15,000 likes on the we like different (vi gillar olika) Facebook page.
"We have received very positive feedback, a little negative too but most people think it was a good thing for us to do...it's crazy that the photo has got so much attention," Spång Lundahl added to the Expressen newspaper.
The Local/pr
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Pupils at the Hulebäcks secondary school outside Gothenburg decided to make a statement in their annual class photo. When the time arrived to take the picture only three of 25 strong class showed up.
The trio appeared in the shot with a student holding a sign saying 'Jimmie sent the rest home' in protest against the nationalist policies advocated by the Sweden Democrats' leader Jimmie Åkesson.
Most of the class come from immigrant backgrounds, so the three blonde haired students appear amidst a row of empty chairs.
"We had two serious proposals for the picture. One was that we were going to dress up as Star Wars characters and the second was to do something more drastic, something that would stand out from the crowd," Patricia Spång Lundahl, who is pictured holding the sign, told Sweden's Aftonbladet newspaper.
The teenager added the class were taking a stand against the Sweden Democrats, which claimed over 800,000 votes in last September's election.
The party is temporarily being led by Parliamentary group leader Mattias Karlsson, while Jimmie Åkesson is on sick leave.
How the Sweden Democrats went mainstream
"We are not sympathetic to their policies and their way of looking at people. In other words we are against racism and for equality," said 18-year-old Spång Lundahl.
Since being picked up by the Swedish media the picture has gone viral generating over 15,000 likes on the we like different (vi gillar olika) Facebook page.
"We have received very positive feedback, a little negative too but most people think it was a good thing for us to do...it's crazy that the photo has got so much attention," Spång Lundahl added to the Expressen newspaper.
The Local/pr
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