
Does SD Want to Burn Its White Paper?
Expressen reports daily on the hustle, the people, and the blunders from Almedalen Week 2025. Victor Malm reports from the third day in Visby.
VISBY. 100 copies.
Stapled, without design.
Genuinely unattractive.
Sverigedemokraterna's white paper has been the topic of the first sunny day in Visby. Most striking? The extremely limited edition. 100 copies, and no digital versions available.
One might suspect they would prefer to gather the 100 copies and arrange a book burning before the last ferry departs for the mainland. But that would look a bit like... Germany in the 1930s. Counterproductive, given the content of the white paper. Thus, they settle for a more modern method: radical distribution refusal. Which, of course, is also counterproductive.
The minimal edition speaks louder than the nearly 900 pages.
Sverigedemokraterna's white paper documents and acknowledges the extensive antisemitism that, for a long time—touching the years when today's leading representatives became involved—characterized the party. Important. But as the party now actively tries to limit the book's distribution, we should rather understand it as a modern indulgence. Guilt short-circuiting.
Martin Luther was clear already in 1517: indulgences undermine genuine repentance.
Undignified, of course.
Since Jimmie Åkesson has (yet) not become Catholic, but on the contrary emphasizes Sweden's Christian—that is, Protestant—heritage, a great reformer comes to mind.
Martin Luther was clear already in 1517: indulgences undermine genuine repentance.
What do the Moderates think?
After all, yesterday Justice Minister Gunnar Strömmer sat on a Christian stage and led Almedalen in Swedish church hymn.
A man who sings hymn 189, "Abide with Me," so beautifully, presumably has a grounded view on memory politics and the nature of forgiveness.
Presumably, he takes Jimmie Åkesson by the ear, or forces SD to hasten a release in a beautiful bound public edition. I would gladly pay 249 kronor on Bokus.
Victor Malm is the culture editor at Expressen.