EDITORIAL • Politics is a shameless business, especially if you are a Social Democrat. The well-known political aphorism about the Social Democrats is always relevant: “As of today, the Social Democrats have always thought this way.” The Social Democrats’ spokesperson on judicial policy, Teresa Carvalho, is today’s shining example of this.
Yesterday, the Sweden Democrats (again) relaunched a proposal I put forward eleven years ago, namely to criminalize participation in a criminal organization. Now it’s called “Saks,” short for “Special Methods Against Criminal Associations.”
The proposal means that membership in criminal organizations would be criminalized. Anyone belonging to such a network could be sentenced to prison—in the most serious cases, for life—or deported, depending on the person’s citizenship. Gang members with dual citizenship would have their Swedish citizenship revoked and be deported, while persons who only have Swedish citizenship would serve a prison sentence.
These are welcome proposals, but not new for the Sweden Democrats.
The DIKO Proposal
As early as 2011, when I was the judicial policy spokesperson for the Sweden Democrats, I proposed introducing a law against organized crime, which I called DIKO (Participation in a Criminal Organization). In that motion, I wrote:
The minimum for the penalty value should be high, and the maximum penalty for gross DIKO should allow for real life sentences. Furthermore, parole should not be applied. Deportation after a served sentence should be mandatory if the person is a foreign citizen or holds a residence permit, and should apply for life.
In other words, it’s more or less exactly what the Sweden Democrats are now proposing—just under a different name. Don’t misunderstand me—it’s good that SD is relaunching the proposal and making it an issue for the election. I believed then, as I do now, that this is an issue SD can benefit from in the election.
The Social Democrats’ Revision of History
What I do react to, however, is the Social Democrats’, as usual, total shamelessness.
– The Sweden Democrats seem to have forgotten that we’re already in the process of criminalizing participation in gangs and revoking citizenships, says Teresa Carvalho, the Social Democrats’ judicial policy spokesperson, to Expressen.
Should you laugh or cry? The only reason this is “underway” is thanks to the Tidö parties, especially SD. The Social Democrats, on the other hand, have always been opposed to both mafia laws and revoking citizenship.
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As recently as May this year, the Social Democrats called the proposal to revoke citizenship “legally uncertain.”
In a press release in 2023, the Social Democrats stuck to the same line.
The Social Democrats are very doubtful about creating an A team and a B team among Swedish citizens.
This was clarified at the press conference held in connection with this, where Ardalan Shekarabi expressed criticism of revoking citizenship due to criminal acts.
Before that, when the Social Democrats governed the country from 2014–2022, of course we saw no such proposals either. Nor did any proposal to criminalize participation in criminal organizations become reality. It was only after the Tidö parties took over in the most recent election that all of this, and more, is now becoming reality.
That Carvalho now gets to make it sound in the media, without any challenge, as if this has always been old Social Democratic policy is simply a perfect example of “as of today, the Social Democrats have always thought this way.” It’s only in the very recent past that the Social Democrats have changed their tune at all—but politicians who flip-flop in rhetoric and “didn’t see it coming” can never be trusted. Especially when they pretend that they’ve always held this view, when in fact they’ve been the last to catch on.
Don’t Trust the Shamelessness
Personally, I find it hard to understand how someone can always have been wrong and then pretend they have always been right, when all the evidence is clear. Carvalho’s performance in Expressen is incredibly embarrassing, but she’s not ashamed because she knows she can get away with it in the establishment media.
But as I’ve said before: a politician’s most important duties are to understand what needs to be done before it needs to be done, and to have the courage to stand for that. The Social Democrats have none of this.
This makes them completely useless, and politicians who are either unable or unwilling to do what is right should not lead the country.