Björn Söder is being pushed from the Sweden Democrats’ party board. This is the first step in a political generational shift – but it is only the next step that will be decisive for the party’s future, writes TV4 Nyheternas political commentator Ann Tiberg.
The Sweden Democrats are now taking the first step in a political generational shift. But it is the next step that will be decisive for the party’s future. Björn Söder has sat on the party board for over 20 years and during a large part of that time belonged to the absolute core of the party leadership.
“The Gang of Four”
They were called “The Gang of Four” and in addition to Björn Söder included Jimmie Åkesson, Mattias Karlsson and Richard Jomshof. They got to know each other during their studies in Lund in the 90s, and after Åkesson’s election as party leader in 2005, they came to dominate the party’s top management through positions in central positions for many years.
Björn Söder has been party secretary, member of the executive committee and group leader in the Riksdag, but he has also been the one of the four who perhaps made the most controversial statements, and as recently as last summer he wrote on social media that the Pride Festival legitimizes pedophilia, a statement that received harsh criticism even from his own party and which he later depublished.
His commitment “symbolic”
That Söder is now not included in the new proposal for the party board is not entirely surprising even to him, especially as his other involvement in the party is now of a symbolic nature. The question is what will happen to the others in the old group of friends.
Richard Jomshof still has a heavy role as chairman of the justice committee, while Mattias Karlsson now devotes more time to international issues than to internal party work.
Five people are proposed to leave the party board at the Sweden Democrats’ country days according to my sources, will the gang of four be three, two or just one when the days are over?
All new parliamentary parties are tested when the generation changes take place. For the Sweden Democrats, the big test will come on the day Jimmie Åkesson wants to leave the party leader post. He has made the party what it is today. But he is now at the head of a party that is broader than when the gang of four held the reins and thus also more spread out and more difficult to lead.
Björn Söder is the first of the four to leave the party board. But it is how Jimmie Åkesson leaves that will determine how the party steps into the future.