Sweden Democrat MP Richard Jomshof is once again commenting on the widespread criticism that followed after he called Aftonbladet’s political editor-in-chief Anders Lindberg a ‘quisling.’ In a fresh post on Facebook, he argues that Sweden Democrats are treated according to a different set of rules than other parties and accuses the media of double standards.

Jomshof writes that Sweden Democrats have for a long time themselves been subjected to severe insults without causing comparable reactions.

– We Sweden Democrats are used to being attacked, used to being called and compared with Nazis, fascists, and Hitler (sometimes even ‘worse than Hitler’). We have been called traitors, collaborators, and quislings, he writes.

He argues that the media and political establishment have previously shrugged their shoulders when Sweden Democrats were subjected to similar attacks, but the reactions are completely different when the party responds.

– But when I/we choose to give back in the same coin and even respond with words that others have previously used against us, then hell breaks loose. It is clear that we are simply expected to play by different rules, he writes.

READ MORE: SD top called Aftonbladet’s Anders Lindberg a ‘quisling’ – now left-leaning liberals are furious

Jomshof concludes the post by making it clear that the criticism will not make him change his way of expressing himself.

– I will not be silent and will continue to call a spade a spade.

Earlier Defense on X

This is not the first time Jomshof has addressed the controversy. In an earlier post on X, he defended his choice of words by stating that Anders Lindberg himself has previously used historical comparisons in political debate.

He referred, among other things, to Lindberg having on two occasions compared Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson to the German politician Franz von Papen, and pointed out that ‘Franz von Papen is just as much a historical person as a concept, like Vidkun Quisling.’

Therefore, Jomshof argued that if the term ‘von Papen’ can be used about Kristersson, then ‘quisling’ can also be used about Lindberg.

Franz von Papen was the chancellor who let Adolf Hitler and the Nazis into the German parliament in the 1930s, and Lindberg argued that Ulf Kristersson’s cooperation with the Sweden Democrats is comparable.

Jomshof also elaborated on his view of the meaning of the word and wrote that a ‘quisling’ today is synonymous with a traitor. According to Jomshof, there are people in Sweden who, through their politics, cooperate with Islamists and thereby act against Sweden’s interests.

Provoked Strong Reactions

The controversy arose after Anders Lindberg, in a video, discussed which individuals could become ministers in a future government including the Sweden Democrats and identified Jomshof as a possible Minister of Justice.

Jomshof responded by publishing a picture of the Norwegian politician Vidkun Quisling next to a photo of Lindberg, with the text:

‘The man on the left is Quisling. The man on the right is a quisling.’

As the criticism grew, he defended his choice of words and wrote that even the Social Democrats’ party leader Magdalena Andersson is ‘a quisling,’ as he believes that she and Lindberg ‘grovel to the Islamists.’

Lindberg rejected the accusation and described it as an attack on free journalism. He emphasized that it is not treason to conduct journalism or to criticize political parties and governments.

READ MORE: They built the hate machine – now they cry about the tone

The statement was also condemned by several party leaders. Magdalena Andersson called the action ‘deeply un-Swedish,’ the Centre Party’s Elisabeth Thand Ringqvist described it as ‘completely unacceptable,’ and the Left Party’s Nooshi Dadgostar demanded that Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson distance himself from the rhetoric.

Kristersson later called the statement ‘distasteful and indecent’ and announced that he intended to raise the issue with Sweden Democrat leader Jimmie Åkesson.

Historical Background

The term ‘quisling’ originates from the Norwegian politician Vidkun Quisling, who founded the fascist party Nasjonal Samling and collaborated with Nazi Germany during the German occupation of Norway in World War II.

Quisling socializing with Heinrich Himmler. Photo: News agency: Atlantic, Berlin — Narodowe Archiwum Cyfrowe in Poland, CC BY-SA 4.0

After the war, he was convicted of high treason and executed in 1945. His surname subsequently became an international term for a traitor or collaborator—a person considered to have betrayed their country by cooperating with an enemy power.