Kent Alexander Ekeroth (born 11 September 1981) is a

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

politician and economist, who represented the

Sweden Democrats The Sweden Democrats ( sv , Sverigedemokraterna ; SD ) is a nationalist and right-wing populist political party in Sweden. As of 2022, it is the largest member of Sweden's right-wing governing bloc to which it provides confidence and supply ...

Early life

Ekeroth was born in

Malmö Malmö (, ; da, Malmø ) is the largest city in the Swedish county (län) of Scania (Skåne). It is the third-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm and Gothenburg, and the sixth-largest city in the Nordic region, with a municipal popula ...

to a

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

mother, Janina Kazarina, originally from

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental coun ...

Central Asia Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes the former ...

(which was then part of the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

), who arrived as a refugee from

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, , is a country in Central Europe. Poland is divided into Voivodeships of Poland, sixteen voivodeships and is the fifth most populous member state of the European Union (EU), with over 38 mill ...

to Sweden in the 1970s, together with her mother, Ekeroth's grandmother and sisters. He is of

descent, with an

atheistic Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no ...

life stance. Ekeroth studied economics at

Lund University , motto = Ad utrumque , mottoeng = Prepared for both , established = , type = Public research university , budget = SEK 9 billion In a National Swedish Radio interview, Ekeroth traced the origins of his political views to his school days, where he went to what he says was an

immigrant Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not natives or where they do not possess citizenship in order to settle as permanent residents or naturalized citizens. Commuters, tourists, ...

-dominated class in

Halmstad Halmstad () is a port, university, industrial and recreational city at the mouth of the Nissan river, in the province of Halland on the Swedish west coast. Halmstad is the seat of Halmstad Municipality and the capital of Halland County. The ci ...

, where he was bullied by "groups of immigrants from

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

and the

Middle East The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Province), East Thrace (Europ ...

" and connected his experience to the overall immigration problems. Journalist and author

Gellert Tamas Gellert Tamas (born 1963) is a Swedish journalist and writer of Hungarian origin. Tamas has worked for ''Dagens Nyheter'', Sweden's leading daily newspaper, and as a journalist for TV4. Tamas is mostly known for his 2002 book ''Lasermannen � ...

claimed that the majority of the class apparently had a Swedish background. According to Tamas, the immigrant-background minority, including Ekeroth, who is of Central Asian Jewish descent, had their background in Eastern Europe. Other students from his time at Östergårdsskolan in Halmstad have said in interviews that Ekeroth was "a quiet, shy kid" and claim he was heavily bullied by his class and "perhaps the entire school".

Political career

Ekeroth joined the

in 2006. Since 2007, he was the party's secretary for international affairs. He participated in an international

counter-jihad Counter-jihad, also spelled counterjihad and known as the counter-jihad movement, is a self-titled political current loosely consisting of authors, bloggers, think tanks, street movements and campaign organisations all linked by apocalyptic bel ...

conference, and was "deeply involved" in the counter-jihad movement. He has been the member of the Riksdag since 4 October 2010 after being elected in the general election the same year. Ekeroth represented the

Stockholm County Stockholm County ( sv, Stockholms län, link=no ) is a county or '' län'' (in Swedish) on the Baltic Sea coast of Sweden. It borders Uppsala County and Södermanland County. It also borders Mälaren and the Baltic Sea. The city of Stoc ...

constituency. In parliament, he has been a member of the

Committee on Justice (Parliamentary) Committee on Justice ( sv, justitieutskottet) (JuU) is a parliamentary committee in the Swedish Riksdag. The committee's main areas of responsibility concern Judiciary policies on various different authorities, among other thi ...

and a deputy member of

Committee on European Union Affairs The Committee on European Union Affairs ( sv, nämnden för Europeiska unionen, also called ''EU-nämnden'') is a governmental body in the Swedish Riksdag, where the Riksdag and the Swedish Government consult matters and issues about the Europea ...

. Ekeroth was a board member of the pan-European

eurosceptic Euroscepticism, also spelled as Euroskepticism or EU-scepticism, is a political position involving criticism of the European Union (EU) and European integration. It ranges from those who oppose some EU institutions and policies, and seek refor ...

European Alliance for Freedom. In October 2006, Ekeroth was fired from his internship at the Swedish embassy in

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( he, תֵּל־אָבִיב-יָפוֹ, translit=Tēl-ʾĀvīv-Yāfō ; ar, تَلّ أَبِيب – يَافَا, translit=Tall ʾAbīb-Yāfā, links=no), often referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the G ...

, Israel, after the embassy had found out about his involvement with the Sweden Democrats. The embassy's actions were later criticised by the Swedish Chancellor of Justice,

Göran Lambertz Göran or Jöran (both pronounced ) is the Swedish form of George, not to be confused with the Slavic Goran. Notable people with the name include: *Göran Andersson, Swedish sport sailor *Göran Bror Benny Andersson Swedish musician, composer ...

, who ruled that the firing was illegal and a breach of the Swedish constitutional laws. The Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs, who are responsible for all Swedish embassies abroad, also had to pay damages to Ekeroth. In February 2018, the head of the Sweden Democrats election committee, Michael Rosenberg, confirmed that Ekeroth would not be on the party's proposed list of candidates for the parliament in the next elections. In the same month, Ekeroth delivered a speech, partly in Hungarian, which was highly critical of Sweden, in the Swedish Parliament. Ekeroth has also hinted at plans of moving to Hungary, following in the footsteps of brother and former politician Ted Ekeroth.

Iron pipe scandal

In November 2012, Ekeroth took a break from his duties after the leakage of a video filmed with his mobile phone from an event which became known as the

Iron pipe scandal The iron pipe scandal (Swedish: ''järnrörsskandalen'') was a political scandal in Sweden involving individuals related to the Sweden Democrats (Swedish: ''Sverigedemokraterna'', SD). It occurred in 2010 but was only brought to mainstream public ...

Erik Almqvist Erik Anders Almqvist (born 24 May 1982) is a Swedish former politician. As a former member of the Sweden Democrats, he was member of the Swedish Riksdag from 2010 until his resignation on 21 February 2013. Career Prior to becoming a member of ...

had two years earlier published an edited version of the video to show how he and his party colleagues Ekeroth and Christian Westling had been verbally abused that evening. The film released in November 2012 by ''

Expressen ''Expressen'' (''The Express'') is one of two nationwide evening newspapers in Sweden, the other being '' Aftonbladet''. ''Expressen'' was founded in 1944; its symbol is a wasp and its slogans are "it stings" or "''Expressen'' to your rescue". ...

'' showed Ekeroth and his colleagues arming themselves with iron pipes after arguing with a drunken man. Ekeroth argued with a young woman, whom he allegedly pushed against a car, while he can be heard telling her: "Back off! Back off!". Almqvist used racist and sexist remarks without Ekeroth reacting against it. The police came to the place and the drunken man said that he saw Ekeroth pushing the woman. Ekeroth and his colleagues had returned when they heard the sirens and said to the police that they had been threatened by the man. While Almqvist was forced to resign, Ekeroth remained in the parliament.

Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties Fo ...

and chairman of the

, Morgan Johansson was quoted as saying "I wonder what his constituents will think of him being in the Riksdag and getting paid without any real duties". Ekeroth later invoiced the Swedish newspapers who used the film or stills from the event. For example, ''

Svenska Dagbladet ''Svenska Dagbladet'' (, "The Swedish Daily News"), abbreviated SvD, is a daily newspaper published in Stockholm, Sweden. History and profile The first issue of ''Svenska Dagbladet'' appeared on 18 December 1884. During the beginning of t ...

'' received an invoice of 51,725

Swedish kronor The krona (; plural: ''kronor''; sign: kr; code: SEK) is the official currency of the Kingdom of Sweden. Both the ISO code "SEK" and currency sign "kr" are in common use; the former precedes or follows the value, the latter usually follows it ...

(approximately €5,500).

Media career

Ekeroth has denied editorial involvement in the news website ''

Avpixlat ''Avpixlat'' (lit. 'de-pixelated') was a Swedish online news site and blog with close ties to the Sweden Democrats and its parliamentarian Kent Ekeroth. The site describes itself as "an independent Sweden-friendly website for news and opinions". In ...

'', though he has been in communication with the editorial staff via emails and the site uses his personal bank account to manage its finances. ''Avpixlat'' has been called a "hate site", for what are claimed to be expressions of

violence Violence is the use of physical force so as to injure, abuse, damage, or destroy. Other definitions are also used, such as the World Health Organization's definition of violence as "the intentional use of physical force or power, threatened ...

and

xenophobia Xenophobia () is the fear or dislike of anything which is perceived as being foreign or strange. It is an expression of perceived conflict between an in-group and out-group and may manifest in suspicion by the one of the other's activities, a ...

. Ekeroth has also denied publishing any articles at the news website, but was quickly found to have published articles as recently as one month before his denial. The tax authorities also found him legally obliged to pay taxes on those donations to ''Avpixlat'', of which 70,000 Swedish kronor had immediately been further transferred to other private accounts owned by Ekeroth. As ''Avpixlat'' has been discontinued, Ekeroth has moved on to register the website ''Samhällsnytt'' in his name, and operate it, along with chief editor Tommy Carlsson, former Sweden Democrats politician Erik Almqvist, Russian-born journalist "Egor Putilov" (a pseudonym for Alexander Yarovenko, currently known as Martin Dahlin), and others associated with Sweden Democrats.

Personal life

Ekeroth resides in

Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...

, Hungary, having moved there in March 2018.

Assault and verdict

On 24 November 2016, Ekeroth was reported to the police for assault after an incident involving a 20-year-old male. The alleged victim claims that he made a sarcastic comment relating to the "Iron pipe scandal" towards the politician before being punched by Ekeroth. Ekeroth argued self-defense while witnesses from the queue alleged that no punches were thrown at Ekeroth by the victim or anyone else. Prior to the incident, Ekeroth had twice been denied entry to the nightclub in question, Solidaritet at

Stureplan Stureplan is a public square in central Stockholm, between Norrmalm and Östermalm. The square connects the major streets Kungsgatan, Birger Jarlsgatan and Sturegatan. The buildings around the square house offices of banks and other financi ...

in Stockholm. The club's bouncers claim that Ekeroth was highly intoxicated and was acting aggressively at the time. According to club management, Ekeroth was denied entry to the club as they could not guarantee his and other patrons safety, due to the politician's highly intoxicated state, while Ekeroth claims that he was denied entry due to his political views and also that he was attacked one month earlier on his way from work. On 3 February 2017, following the conclusion of the investigation, the prosecutor filed charges for assault. In June 2017, Ekeroth was found guilty of assault by the court found Ekeroth and he was sentenced to pay a fine. The

Svea Court of Appeal Svea Court of Appeal ( sv, Svea hovrätt), located in Stockholm, is one of six appellate courts in the Swedish legal system. It is located in the Wrangel Palace, on Riddarholmen islet in Gamla Stan, the old town of Stockholm. History The Svea ...

later overturned the verdict on the grounds that the prosecutor had failed to disprove that Ekeroth acted in self-defence. Ekeroth has previously been involved in bar and club incidents, both as an attacker and a victim.

References

External links

*
Kent Ekeroth
at the Swedish Parliament {{DEFAULTSORT:Ekeroth, Kent 1981 births Living people People from Lund Members of the Riksdag 2010–2014 Members of the Riksdag 2014–2018 Members of the Riksdag from the Sweden Democrats Swedish male bloggers Swedish people of Jewish descent Jewish Swedish politicians Jewish atheists Swedish atheists Lund University alumni Swedish twins Counter-jihad activists