The Sweden Democrats’ party congress in Västerås over the weekend has made waves both domestically and internationally, as two of its foremost members delivered fiery speeches in which they sharply criticized the ever-increasing federalization of the EU, floated the idea of ‘Swexit,’ and called for radical, anti-Swedish mosques to be demolished.
MEP Charlie Weimers, set the be SD’s leading candidate in next year’s European elections, told fellow party members that, in light of recent moves made by globalist Eurocrats to further centralize power in Brussels, he would demand Sweden’s “immediate exit” from the bloc’s if federalists go “too far,” Svenska Dagbladet reported.
“The EU is a political project going in the wrong direction,” Weimers declared.
Although he recognized the concerns within his party over Brussels continued overreach, Weimers, who also serves as the vice chairman of the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) parliamentary grouping, advised against Sweden’s immediate departure from the bloc.
“EU critics must be in the game if we are to succeed in reversing the trend,” he continued.
Weimers did, however, stress that the possibility of an exit should remain on the table, and be pursued, in the case that the EU abolishes member states’ veto rights.
If Brussels continues to lean into Eurofederalism by doing away with the unanimity rule, he said that he would “call for an immediate Swexit.”
The SD’s youth wing, Ungsvenskarna, also suggested not ruling out the option to leave the EU. “As a party, we must make it clear, especially to our own voters, that Swexit is a real alternative if the ship can’t be turned around, and that the debate must be brought up in next year’s EU elections,” Ungsvenskarna said.
The Swedish MEP then described the EU as a supranational union that consistently overrules Sweden and diminishes the influence of the national governments. “Democracy is gradually being undermined, and the citizens have noticed this development,” he argued.
And while Weimer’s speech made headlines in the national and European press, it was SD chief Jimmie Åkesson’s address that really agitated emotions—mainly those of leftists and Islamists—at home and abroad.
Åkesson began his speech by highlighting pro-Swedish reforms that have been made over the past year under the SD-supported government, including the tightening of asylum policy, increased efforts to repatriate those who do not belong in Sweden, the bolstering of the country’s defenses, and various anti-gang, internal security-related legislation already passed or in the works.
We must “remind ourselves that things are moving, that Sweden is on the move,” he began. “And for the first time in decades, heading in the right direction,” he added, underscoring that “Sweden will likely have the strictest asylum policy” in Europe at the end of this parliamentary term.
“Sweden Democrats are the engine of the important reform work that is taking place,” he insisted.
But what really caused a stir came later in Åkesson’s address, when he began discussing Islamism—what he views as a mortal threat to Swedish society.
Continuing, he said:
The Islamists are no longer a handful of fools scattered in a few outlying areas around our big cities. They are very numerous, they are everywhere. And they have strong, mutual loyalties to the Social Democrats and the left-wing movement in general. The Islamists in Hamas and other antisemitic, Islamist, and anti-democratic movements are openly supported by representatives of Sweden’s largest party, the Social Democrats. Islamists celebrating bloody acts of terror on Swedish streets. Swedes shot dead for wearing Sweden’s colors. Swedish Jews persecuted and harassed on the streets of their own country.
“We need to start confiscating and tearing down mosques where anti-democratic, anti-Swedish, homophobic, anti-Semitic propaganda or general disinformation is being spread,” Åkesson declared emphatically. He went on:
Sweden, all of Sweden, must stop turning a blind eye to Islamism, stop excusing un-Swedish, non-democratic and violent value systems. Start fighting, with all your might. Stop apologizing. Are you on the side of Islamists, terrorists, and anti-democrats? Or are you on the side of democracy? On the side of the West? On the right side of history? You can’t do both, there is no gray area in between, you can’t be neutral in this. You must choose.
Those comments ignited a firestorm in Sweden and Turkey, with media outlets and a former diplomat saying this could jeopardize Sweden’s NATO accession. The comments also prompted condemnation from Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson and former Social Democrat Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson.
“I think this is a disrespectful way of expressing oneself, a polarizing way of expressing oneself,” Kristersson, whose government is supported by Åkesson, said, adding that the SD leader’s comments “misrepresents what Sweden stands for internationally.”
Responding to the censure in an op-ed published by Aftonbladet on Monday, November 27th, Åkesson wrote:
We politicians have a responsibility to our employers—the Swedish people. We must do everything we can to prevent and make it difficult for Islamists to spread their anti-democratic messages in Sweden. To turn a blind eye to the fact that deeply harmful dangerous ideas are being spread, under the guise of religion and with talk of religious freedom as protection, is actually terrifying.
