LO’s new chairman Johan Lindholm has no problem with the previously intended chairman Pim van Dorpel’s background in white power environments.
– I don’t think you should punish someone for things that happened when they were 14-15 years old, he says on TV4 Nyhetsmorgon.
Pim van Dorpel was the only candidate for the post of LO chairman but dropped out at the last moment.
Yesterday, Arbetet published an interview in which van Dorpel told that he moved in white power environments as a young man.
– I did not confess to Nazism. But I called myself a patriot or friend of Sweden, he tells the newspaper.
Wanted to fit in
He does not remember if he was a member of any organization, but says that he applied to the skin skull culture in Nyköping as a 14-year-old, among other things because of the band Ultima Thule, which has its roots in the city.
– I probably did anything to fit in. I may have greeted at parties, at leisure parks. There may certainly be pictures and videos. But I don’t know, says Pim van Dorpel to Arbetet.
“Of course you can make mistakes”
The new chairman Johan Lindholm says that the information about Pim van Dorpel’s background reached the election committee close to the LO congress. The selection committee did not know what that would mean and Pim van Dorpel himself made the decision to withdraw for “personal reasons”.
– There are certainly things that I or someone else has done as a 14-15-year-old as well. You cannot be disqualified for that in a mission like this, it is clear that you can make mistakes, says Johan Lindholm.
It is unclear whether Pim van Dorpel will return to the post as vice chairman of the Hotel and Restaurant Union.