A Sweden Democrats election poster featuring party leader Jimmie Åkesson. Photo: Henrik Montgomery/TT
The Sweden Democrats (SD) asked two local politicians to leave the party after it was revealed that they had purchased Nazi and racist items online.
One of the Sweden Democrats, Per Olsson, was running in the municipal election in Småland. He was discovered to have purchased items from the Nordic Resistance Movements online store. He had also posted a photo of Adolf Hitler to Facebook along with a status update paying tribute to the Nazi leader. Olssons Facebook page also included posts calling Arabs rapists and paedophiles as well as photo calling Anne Frank “the coolest Jew in the shower room”.
A local SD party spokesman said Olsson had been forced out of the party.
“You cannot be a candidate for the Sweden Democrats if you have these types of views and share these types of materials,” Michael Erlandsson told Östra Småland. The other politician was Mikael Bitén, who was running in the municipal election in Jämtland. He was found to have purchased white power music and racist stickers online. He has left the party and withdrawn his candidacy, according to P4 Jämtland. The revelations of the Sweden Democrat members online purchases were part of a report from Dagens ETC that discovered that a total of 11 members of the anti-immigration party could be linked to purchases in online stores that sell Nazi memorabilia and racist goods. The news of the racist purchases and Hitler support came just two days after it was revealed that several former members of the violent and anti-democratic Nazi organization National Socialist Front (Nationalsocialistisk front – NSF) are running for office as Sweden Democrats.
