Sverigedemokraterna's White Paper: A Deep Dive into Persistent Issues

Sverigedemokraterna's white paper is a comprehensive catalog of the party's longstanding issues, which have been well-known for years. The party leadership's handling of the book is troubling as echoes from history still resonate within the party.

Finally, the white paper by Sverigedemokraterna has been released. Authored by intellectual historian and former SD member Tony Gustafsson, the nearly 900-page document examines the party's evolution from the racist campaign organization Bevara Sverige Svenskt and its development over the first decades.

The book mentions individuals with connections to the Nazi and fascist movements, racist rhetoric, and ideological focus. However, the white paper contains no new revelations; all of this has been known for some time.

Sverigedemokraterna's history and development have been meticulously documented in several comprehensive books since the early 1990s. Notable works include Stieg Larsson and Anna-Lena Lodenius's "Extremhögern" from 1991 and 1994, and Stieg Larsson and Mikael Ekman's "Sverigedemokraterna: den nationella rörelsen" from 2001. Heléne Lööw's "Nazismen i Sverige 1980-1999" from 2000 is also excellent supplementary reading.

The party's history has always been there for Sverigedemokraterna to relate to and, importantly, to take responsibility for. However, over the years, the party has had a somewhat beautifying and contradictory attitude towards its history. While party leaders have expressed pride in the party's ideological roots, they have also mumbled regrets about "growing pains," such as the presence of skinheads.

Now, with the release of the white paper, there is a new opportunity to confront its past. The concept of a white paper implies that the party commissioning it should openly and honestly relate to the results. The white paper should turn over every stone and let everything that emerges be known.

This is the ideal thought, but SD's handling of Tony Gustafsson's white paper is already troubling. During a seminar in Visby on Thursday, the party announced that only 100 physical copies of the book were printed. No digital copy was available, which naturally limits distribution and makes it harder to freely search the extensive text.

The party leadership's initial reactions also raise questions. In the introspection that should follow a white paper, one should also ask whether the historical problems still persist within the party.

What is an apology for historical transgressions worth if they are still ongoing?

Both party leader Jimmie Åkesson and the often-cited chief ideologue in the party, Mattias Karlsson, have been clear in placing the party's problems in a distant past.

As someone among the few who have had the opportunity to read the white paper, I am struck by a paradoxical feeling. While it is clear that much has changed since SD was a small, pariah-stigmatized party, it is striking how many of the problems still persist.

The antisemitism, which the SD leader mentioned in his Almedalen speech earlier this week, is not a closed chapter. We need not look further than Åkesson's own circle of acquaintances to find a party leader who has expressed online that "the Jew is the root of all evil." In the parliament, there is the economic-political spokesperson Oscar Sjöstedt, who was filmed laughing heartily while joking about some Nazi colleagues kicking sheep that were supposed to symbolize "die Juden."

The Nazi connections listed in the white paper are also not just a thing of the past. In the latest election, Expressen, together with Expo, showed how several SD candidates could be linked to Nazism or right-wing extremism.

Among the recent years' other Nazi revelations is the former SD top in Nynäshamn, Rebecca Ädel, who for several years secretly spread Nazi propaganda, and the local SD top Dennis Askling, who in a chat spread Nazi admiration and racial ideological reasoning.

The white paper's catalog of racial notions and racial rhetoric that appeared in Sverigedemokraterna's own newspapers, mainly during the 1990s, is today absent from the party's official communication. But when party representatives believe they are anonymous, or at least internal, online, they still talk about asylum seekers as "parasites" or Africans as "damn hellish apes."

The white paper also addresses the often rowdy party manifestations that in many ways dominated the image of SD during the 1990s. The drunken and rowdy young men are a category of party representatives that have very much remained in the party.

This was shown by Expressen's latest revelations about drunken videos of MP Rasmus Giertz and parliamentary substitute Daniel Lönn. In fact, several of the biggest SD scandals over the past decade have been alcohol-related.

Sverigedemokraterna's legacy, as presented in the white paper, is therefore not just a matter of the past—it still circulates within the party's bloodstream.