The left-wing activist journalist Frida Sundkvist presents a former local Moderate politician as a new “piece of the puzzle” behind the mass murder at Campus Risbergska – despite the police not having found any political motive. The publication is now being accused of constructing an artificial chain of guilt to the Moderates and the Sweden Democrats (SD), while Magda Gad spreads a description of the perpetrator’s grandfather that contradicts his own text.
On February 4, 2025, Rickard Andersson murdered ten people at Campus Risbergska in Örebro before taking his own life.
What drove him to commit Sweden’s worst mass shooting has since been the subject of much speculation, but according to the authorities, the police investigation found no communication or signs of political or ideological engagement on the part of the perpetrator.
Now, journalist Frida Sundkvist, who wrote the book Efter skotten (After the Shots) about the massacre, makes a new attempt to search for a political trail. In an article on Magda Gad’s site, Gad World, she points out that Andersson’s grandfather Åke Andersson was a local politician for the Moderates in Örebro for 17 years.
The headline is dramatic: “The Mass Murderer’s Unknown Link to an M-Politician”. But when the former Moderate’s own words are now examined, a very different picture emerges than the one Magda Gad presents on X.
Gad: “Wanted to Copy SD”
When promoting Sundkvist’s article, Magda Gad describes the publication as a “scoop.” She writes:
“Investigative journalist Frida Sundkvist, who has previously written a book on Risbergska, has discovered a connection between the mass murderer and an M-politician who wanted to copy SD and wrote negatively about Somalis.”
This wording appears in the introduction to the article itself as well, where it’s claimed that the grandfather “wanted to copy SD and wrote negatively about the integration of Somalis.”
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The political connection consists of Åke Andersson being Rickard Andersson’s grandfather and a former local politician for the Moderates. Sundkvist states that his political commission ended in 2002. Rickard Andersson changed his surname from Simon (his parents’ name) to his grandfather’s Andersson in 2017.
But the opinion piece used to describe the grandfather’s political stance hardly paints the picture of someone who wanted to copy SD. On the contrary. The text was published in Nerikes Allehanda in 2013 under the headline “Let’s Take a Fight Against the Sweden Democrats”.
Åke Andersson opens by stating that Sweden should continue to accept people seeking protection. He criticizes the then Moderate Minister for Migration Tobias Billström’s argument about limiting immigration to a certain volume and welcomes at the same time the Moderates’ willingness to discuss migration policy.
The reason is, among other things, that he wants to challenge SD. Andersson describes the Sweden Democrats as an “unnecessary party” and calls for politicians who “take on SD.” He concludes that the possibility of SD becoming a kingmaker after the 2014 election “should scare us all.”
This is the text that, according to Gad, describes an M-politician who “wanted to copy SD.”
The Sentence About Somalis
Gad’s claim that Andersson “wrote negatively about Somalis” has also sparked reactions. In the original text there is only a single sentence mentioning Somalis. Andersson writes:
He argues for continued refugee reception and disagrees with Tobias Billström’s talk of volume restrictions. It is, to put it mildly, hard to argue that he wanted to “copy SD’s politics.”
Sofie Löwenmark about the Moderate local politician Åke Andersson, on X.
“We should all acknowledge that there is something wrong with the system when it takes an average of seven years for a Somali ‘to become Swedish’…”
But the sentence does not end there. Andersson goes on to criticize Sweden for deporting families with children who, after several years, have managed to establish themselves and integrate into Swedish society. He explicitly says it is the system that is at fault.
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Journalist Sofie Löwenmark, editor-in-chief at Doku, reacted strongly to Gad’s description and published the full sentence.
– He argues for continued refugee reception and goes against Tobias Billström’s talk of limiting numbers. It is, to put it mildly, hard to say that he wanted to “copy SD’s policies,” she writes on X.
Löwenmark also points out that Andersson criticizes SD’s very existence and writes:
– He’s saying it’s the system that’s at fault. Not the Somalis.
She later calls the publication a constructed and fabricated chain of guilt and describes it as repugnant to distort a likely deceased man’s words in this way.
Kristersson and SD
Sundkvist’s article, however, does not stop at the grandfather. In a special factual section, Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson is brought into the story. Four days before the massacre, Kristersson stated on TV4 that the ongoing wave of Swedish violence “is much about immigration.”
The concept of “stochastic terrorism” is then introduced – the theory that demonizing rhetoric from public figures can increase the probability that individuals commit ideologically motivated acts of violence. The article notes, however, that research in the field is disputed.
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The problem for the political theory is also addressed in Sundkvist’s own article. Police have been clear that the investigation found no communication or signs of ideological or political motivation in Rickard Andersson.
Sundkvist also points out that Andersson visited the alternative media site Nya Dagbladet shortly before the act and lets a researcher on right-wing extremism generally reason about how family, local environment, and values during upbringing can influence radicalization. The researcher, however, does not comment on Rickard Andersson specifically.
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What the grandfather and grandson actually discussed – or whether the grandfather’s political views had any influence on Rickard Andersson – or whether they even interacted, there is no information about. Sundkvist herself writes:
“What Rickard Andersson discussed with his family is at present impossible for an outsider to know.”
At the same time, it’s hardly difficult to understand what Sundkvist is suggesting. By, in the same article, lining up the mass murderer’s Moderate grandfather, the Sweden Democrats, Kristersson’s statement about immigration, a visit to Nya Dagbladet, and a discussion about “stochastic terrorism,” the image is built of a possible right-wing political motive – without any such motive actually being supported.
READ ALSO: TV4’s analysis of the Örebro mass murder slammed by experts
Sundkvist never explicitly states that the Moderates or SD inspired Andersson to commit mass murder, but the association is left for the reader to make.
“Stochastic Terrorism”
The term “stochastic terrorism” becomes even more interesting if Sundkvist’s reasoning is applied consistently. Donald Trump has for years been described by political opponents as a fascist, a Nazi, and an existential threat to democracy.
During the 2024 election campaign, he survived two assassination attempts – in Butler he was hit by a bullet and a spectator was killed; two months later, Ryan Routh was arrested after hiding armed at Trump’s golf course. Routh was later convicted for the assassination attempt.
The following year, the conservative commentator Charlie Kirk was shot dead during an appearance at Utah Valley University – the prosecution claims that the alleged perpetrator was driven by opposition to Kirk’s political views.
If political rhetoric is to be connected to individual acts of violence through the theory of “stochastic terrorism,” the obvious question arises as to why the same analysis is not applied just as readily to the demonizing rhetoric that has long been directed at both American and Swedish conservatives.
This is not the first time Frida Sundkvist has been noted by Samnytt. As recently as August, the newspaper reported on her reaction after Djurgårdens IF fired a boxing coach who had threatened to kill two Swedish party leaders.
After Samnytt confronted the club, Djurgården chose to end its cooperation with the coach and inform its members about the incident.
Sundkvist then responded by accusing the club of having allowed itself to be used in what she called a “far-right campaign” during the election – phrasing that attracted attention since her criticism was directed at the reporting and Djurgården’s actions after the threats.
Sundkvist Strikes Back
Löwenmark’s criticism prompted Sundkvist to respond on X. She defends her interpretation of the sentence about Somalis and simultaneously attacks Löwenmark’s previous reporting on the investigation:
– You have lied about the phones and computers being searched and now you seem to mean that a person who states it takes seven years for a Somali to become Swedish is not expressing himself in a derogatory way. Your analysis of the Risbergska massacre continues to not impress me, writes Sundkvist.
Löwenmark responds by again publishing the full sentence and putting it in context: continued refugee reception, criticism of Billström’s volume restrictions, and opposition to SD.
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Even Kvartal’s editor-in-chief Jörgen Huitfeldt has slammed the publication. After reading the article, he publicly wondered if it was “some kind of twisted joke” and felt that “weak is insufficient” to describe the connections presented.
After wasting ten minutes of my life reading the text, I ask myself: Is this some kind of twisted joke? Weak is insufficient to describe the so-called “links” and “connections” that this text claims exist. To exploit the relatives’ despair in this way is, to say the least, in poor taste.
Jörgen Huitfeldt, Kvartal, on Magda Gad’s X post
What remains after the much-noted “scoop” is the actual family connection – Sweden’s worst mass murderer had a grandfather who, long ago, was a local politician for the Moderates.
But the grandfather who, according to Gad, wanted to copy SD, himself wrote that SD was an unnecessary party, that politicians must challenge the party – and that the idea of the Sweden Democrats as kingmakers should “scare us all.”