According to information to SVT’s Politikbyrån, the criticism against the union chairman Douglas Thor, who is accused of having tried to rig an election in Jämtland, should not be seen as an isolated incident. Instead, it is a continuation of the phalanx battles that have been going on in the Moderates since Ulf Kristersson and Fredrik Reinfeldt settled for the chairmanship of MUF in the early 90s – a bitter struggle that is usually called the “Battle of Lycksele”.
“Friends broke down and cried”
Hanif Bali, a local politician for the Moderates who previously sat on the party board, was involved during the battles in MUF in the 2000s. Then the fight was between two phalanxes called the “boys” and the “girls”, where the so-called “boys” were opponents of the New Moderates with Fredrik Reinfeldt and Anders Borg.
– Friends broke down, cried and couldn’t take it anymore. People dropped out and never wanted to engage in politics again. Teenagers can be bloody brutal and politics can be brutal too, says Hanif Bali Politburo and continues:
– If it had been a workplace, the Work Environment Agency would have shut it down a long time ago.
Are we talking about ostracism and bullying?
– Ostracism and bullying are perhaps the mildest things that can occur.
“Burned up the voter’s register”
Hanif Bali describes a “bizarre” moment when he ran to take over Muf Stockholm in 2009. It was “all-out war” – before the vote, a large number of new members appeared, among them people who had forgotten which candidate they were going to vote for.
– The battle in Lycksele was a tea party in comparison to the phalanx battles we had. Once the fire department came there and tried to shut down the voting, which they failed to do.
– After the voting had been completed, those who won burned the voter’s register so that no one would discover the cheating.
According to Hanif Bali, there is no longer any phalanx in the Moderates. Other people with transparency like Politburo spoke to, however, claim that it is still ongoing today and that it also affects the top party leadership.