The Nobel Foundation and the Sweden Democrats have long enjoyed a fruitful symbiosis. When the Sweden Democrats entered parliament in 2010, party leader Jimmie Åkesson did not receive an invitation to what is usually called the party of parties.
The justification then was SD’s far-right background and that leading representatives showed “a lack of respect for the basic principle of the equal value of all people”.
The grassroots loved every missed invitation
The fact that the SD party leader did not receive an invitation actually suited both the Nobel Foundation and Jimmie Åkesson well. The Nobel people received pats on the back from an establishment mildly enamored of SD who seemed to have a hard time leaving far-right marches and healings behind. And Jimmie Åkesson could continue to hone his image as an outsider and rebel.
Every missed invitation was met with a cocky: “I didn’t ask to come.” Which SD’s grassroots loved.
But this year, the Nobel Foundation is doing a U-turn. Very little has changed in substance. Instead, the party organizers say, like Groucho Marx, that they now have new principles. Unclear why. But once again Åkesson gets an invitation with the elbow, because the Nobel people say that the ambassadors of Russia, Belarus and Iran are also welcome.
The guess: Then Åkesson dances in a frock coat in the Blue Hall
Thus, the symbiosis seems to continue but in slightly new forms. Åkesson is welcomed together with several of the world’s rogue states. Whereupon Åkesson immediately replied on Facebook that he was “unfortunately busy that evening”.
But this is also what happens when people abandon old positions. The first invitation often comes with an ill-concealed insult. Whereupon it is brusquely brushed aside. But over time the invitations often become more polite. Like the answers.
My guess is that within a few years we will see Jimmie Åkesson dancing in a frock coat in the Blue Hall. The question then becomes rather whether the party is ready to leave the outsider role and accept that the party leader has become part of the establishment they say they shun?