A blog post by a local Sweden Democrat politician, Per T K Wahlberg, in which he claims that black Africans are genetically programmed to rape children, has raised questions about the party's attempts to distance itself from open racism.
Wahlberg occupies 26th place on the Sweden Democrats list for municipal elections in Landskrona in southern Sweden and he currently sits on the culture committee and election commission. The party claimed 11 seats in Landskrona municipality at the last election in 2006.
On his blog "Landskronabackspegel" (Literally: Landskrona rearview mirror) Wahlberg, a 76-year-old retiree and one of the party's more experienced members, published a post on the genetic characteristics of black Africans:
"For many thousands of years, the Negro could chill out in the heat, eat some bananas, rape some passing woman or child, fight with other negro males and eat them up, play the drums a little, run around a bit, catch an antelope, eat a few bananas, fuck a bit, get drunk on fermented fruits or herbs, and so on. This has been going on for millennia without any evolutionary pressure in the form of environmental factors forcing the negro to develop in another direction."
Wahlberg told The Local on Friday that the quotes are all taken from the provocative Swedish political and media discussion forum Flashback, and are written "ironically".
Nevertheless, he declined to distance himself from the broad content of the post.
"You could say that some parts have some truth to them. But generally speaking it is written with irony," he said.
In a prior recent interview with the local Helsingborgs Dagblad (HD) daily, Wahlberg was more forthright over his personal views.
"I think that it was quite an accurate description. If we look at history, then humanity began in Africa once upon a time, and then there were some who emigrated to Europe and Asia. But at what level are they now? Not much has happened over these thousands of years," he told the newspaper.
Wahlberg's blog furthermore includes several recent posts critical of Islam and Muslims.
Despite the nature of his blog, Wahlberg told The Local late Friday morning that he has not received any internal criticism from the party hierarchy.
However, in the wake of the attention given to Wahlberg's blog by Sweden's mainstream media, he has since left the party.
Sweden Democrat party secretary Björn Söder told Sveriges Radio (SR) that very few people in the party knew of the blog, despite it having existed since 2007.
"It's quite remarkable that we have a candidate who expresses himself in that way," Söder told SR.
Wahlberg, saying that he had a "peripheral role" with the Sweden Democrats, later told HD that he stepped down because he didn't want to "hurt the party".
While he has now removed the quote from his blog, Wahlberg told HD he did not regret publishing the post.
The Sweden Democrats was founded in 1988 and has its roots in Nazi organisations and groups such as Keep Sweden Swedish (Bevara Sverige Svenskt). Since the mid-1990s the party has worked to become more respectable, along the lines of other European nationalist parties, such as the French National Front.
These attempts to move away from the political fringes have at times included purging the party of more extremist members and distancing itself from discussions that address issues such as race biology.
The Local's attempts to contact the Sweden Democrats on Friday for comment were unsuccessful.
The Local Sweden
