Lars-Magnus Harald Christoffer Ohly (; born 13 January 1957) is a Swedish politician, and the former

party chairman In politics, a party chair (often party chairperson/-man/-woman or party president) is the presiding officer of a political party. The nature and importance of the position differs from country to country, and also between political parties. Th ...

of the Swedish Left Party. He was a member of the

Swedish parliament The Riksdag ( , ; also or , ) is the parliament and the supreme decision-making body of the Kingdom of Sweden. Since 1971, the Riksdag has been a unicameral parliament with 349 members (), elected proportionally and serving, since 1994, f ...

from 1998 to 2014.

Early life and career

Lars Ohly was born in the

Spånga Spånga is a community and parish in the borough of Spånga-Tensta in Stockholm County, Sweden. Background Spånga was an independent municipality until January 1, 1949, when most of it was merged with the City of Stockholm, with smaller ...

suburb of

Stockholm Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...

. His father, like all his forefathers for six generations, was a priest. He grew up in various places around Stockholm. After finishing his mandatory military service in the

Swedish Army The Swedish Army () is the army, land force of the Swedish Armed Forces of the Kingdom of Sweden. Beginning with its service in 1521, the Swedish Army has been active for more than 500 years. History Svea Life Guards dates back to the year 1 ...

in 1977 and '' gymnasium'' (secondary) education in 1978, he started working at

Statens Järnvägar The Swedish State Railways () or SJ, originally the Royal Railway Board (), was the former Government agencies in Sweden, government agency responsible for operating the state-owned railways in Sweden. History The Swedish State Railways wa ...

(Swedish State Railways), where he later became a

conductor Conductor or conduction may refer to: Biology and medicine * Bone conduction, the conduction of sound to the inner ear * Conduction aphasia, a language disorder Mathematics * Conductor (ring theory) * Conductor of an abelian variety * Cond ...

(). He is still employed at SJ, but is on leave of absence since 1994. Ohly became a member of the Liberal Youth of Sweden, the youth wing of the Liberal People's Party, in 1970, but left shortly afterwards, and became a communist. He joined the Communist Youth in 1978, and the Left Party in 1979. He became a member of board of the Communist Youth in 1980, was elected as a substitute of the party board in 1987, and became a full member of the party board in 1990. From 1994 to 2000, he was

party secretary In politics, a party secretary is a senior official within a political party with responsibility for the organizational and daily political work. In most parties, the party secretary is second in rank to the party leader (or party chairman). In s ...

, and in 2004, he was elected

. He has been a Member of Parliament since 1998. Lars Ohly was in 2008 nominated for the award ''Kurd friend of the year'' (Swedish: Årets kurdvän 2008). ''Årets kurdvän'' is one of the awards presented annually by the Kurdish gala jury that celebrates the active and successful Kurds and friends of Kurds in Sweden. In August 2011, Ohly announced his resignation. He was elected party chairman on 20 February 2004, succeeding Ulla Hoffmann. In November 2017, Ohly was banned from attending Left Party events, including the party congress, after allegations of

sexual harassment Sexual harassment is a type of harassment based on the sex or gender of a victim. It can involve offensive sexist or sexual behavior, verbal or physical actions, up to bribery, coercion, and assault. Harassment may be explicit or implicit, wit ...

towards women. He left the party in January 2018.

Controversies

Nacka Skoglund

During his first weeks as party chairman, Ohly claimed in an interview to once have, as a boy, played

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

against Swedish football legend Nacka Skoglund in a friendly match. The newspaper ''

Dagens Nyheter (, ), abbreviated ''DN'', is a daily newspaper in Sweden. It is published in Stockholm and aspires to full national and international coverage, and is widely considered Sweden's newspaper of record A newspaper of record is a major nationa ...

'' later revealed that this claim was most likely fictitious. When confronted about this, Ohly claimed it to be an indeliberate error on his part.

Being a communist or not

Lars Ohly used to be an outspoken communist. On 5 October 2005, ''

Uppdrag granskning ''Uppdrag granskning'' (English name: ''Mission: Investigate'') is a Swedish television program focusing on investigative journalism Investigative journalism is a form of journalism in which reporters deeply investigate a single topic of in ...

'' in

Sveriges Television Sveriges Television AB ("Sweden's Television aktiebolag, Stock Company"), shortened to SVT (), is the Sweden, Swedish national public broadcasting, public television broadcaster, funded by a public service tax on personal income set by the Riksd ...

(the Swedish

public service A public service or service of general (economic) interest is any service intended to address the needs of aggregate members of a community, whether provided directly by a public sector agency, via public financing available to private busin ...

television) aired a programme about Lars Ohly's background and views on

democracy Democracy (from , ''dēmos'' 'people' and ''kratos'' 'rule') is a form of government in which political power is vested in the people or the population of a state. Under a minimalist definition of democracy, rulers are elected through competitiv ...

. In the programme, Ohly was accused of trying to rewrite his own history and of hiding his past. Several quotes by Ohly were found where he defended the political systems of the

Eastern bloc The Eastern Bloc, also known as the Communist Bloc (Combloc), the Socialist Bloc, the Workers Bloc, and the Soviet Bloc, was an unofficial coalition of communist states of Central and Eastern Europe, Asia, Africa, and Latin America that were a ...

. Several prominent party members, among them former party leader Lars Werner, also witnessed about Ohly's views. It was also found that, in 2000, Ohly had reworded a letter of apology to the " Kiruna-Swedes" - victims of harassment from the Left Party after their return home from

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

custody - with a number of critical references to

Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Dzhugashvili; 5 March 1953) was a Soviet politician and revolutionary who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until Death and state funeral of Joseph Stalin, his death in 1953. He held power as General Secret ...

being removed. The programme also showed that Ohly branded himself as a

Leninist Leninism (, ) is a political ideology developed by Russian Marxist revolutionary Vladimir Lenin that proposes the establishment of the Dictatorship of the proletariat#Vladimir Lenin, dictatorship of the proletariat led by a revolutionary Vangu ...

as late as 1999. Following this controversy, the leaders of all the other parliamentary parties have urged Ohly to drop his adherence to communism. On 30 October 2005, Ohly declared on Swedish TV that he would stop labeling himself a communist. But he stressed at the same time that he would stay faithful to the ideals of communism and always would keep fighting for a "

classless society A classless society is a society in which no one is born into a social class like in a class society. Distinctions of wealth, income, education, culture, or social network might arise and would only be determined by individual experience an ...

Swedish-Cuban Association

During the controversy regarding Ohly's views on communism and his definition of

socialism Socialism is an economic ideology, economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse Economic system, economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes ...

and socialist leadership, Ohly's membership in the Swedish-Cuban Association became known. The Swedish-Cuban Association supported the government of

Fidel Castro Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (13 August 1926 – 25 November 2016) was a Cuban politician and revolutionary who was the leader of Cuba from 1959 to 2008, serving as the prime minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976 and President of Cuba, president ...

Cuba Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country, comprising the island of Cuba (largest island), Isla de la Juventud, and List of islands of Cuba, 4,195 islands, islets and cays surrounding the main island. It is located where the ...

and does not want to label the country as a

dictatorship A dictatorship is an autocratic form of government which is characterized by a leader, or a group of leaders, who hold governmental powers with few to no Limited government, limitations. Politics in a dictatorship are controlled by a dictator, ...

. Ohly then released a statement that he considers Cuba to be a dictatorship and that he is critical of the lack of

political freedom Political freedom (also known as political autonomy or political agency) is a central concept in history and political thought and one of the most important features of democratic societies.Hannah Arendt, "What is Freedom?", ''Between Past and ...

in Cuba, a statement which in response was criticized by the chairman of the Swedish-Cuban Association. In September 2005, Ohly declared that he had left the organisation.

Middle finger during a live debate

During a live debate on Swedish TV4 on 18 September 2006, the day after the Swedish general election, Ohly caused some controversy when he showed the middle finger to the right-wing commentator Marie Söderqvist for calling his leadership style typical of a communist. Ohly later apologized and said that he experienced a "temporary blackout".

Choosing private welfare

Ohly is strongly opposed to letting privately owned companies operate in industries traditionally controlled by the Swedish state, for instance

education Education is the transmission of knowledge and skills and the development of character traits. Formal education occurs within a structured institutional framework, such as public schools, following a curriculum. Non-formal education als ...

and

healthcare Health care, or healthcare, is the improvement or maintenance of health via the preventive healthcare, prevention, diagnosis, therapy, treatment, wikt:amelioration, amelioration or cure of disease, illness, injury, and other disability, physic ...

. However, both his children go to

private school A private school or independent school is a school not administered or funded by the government, unlike a State school, public school. Private schools are schools that are not dependent upon national or local government to finance their fina ...

s. Ohly says his children made their choices based on what was best for them, independent of his views on the matter. In 2010, he chose to have his meniscus surgery at the

private hospital A private hospital is a hospital not owned by the government, including for-profit and non-profit hospitals. Funding is by patients themselves ("self-pay"), by insurers, or by foreign embassies. Private hospitals are commonly part, albeit in var ...

Sophiahemmet Sophiahemmet is a private hospital at Norra Djurgården in Stockholm Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nord ...

. A fan of

leasehold estate A leasehold estate is an ownership of a temporary right to hold land or property in which a lessee or a tenant has rights of real property by some form of title from a lessor or landlord. Although a tenant does hold rights to real property, a le ...

s over

condominium A condominium (or condo for short) is an ownership regime in which a building (or group of buildings) is divided into multiple units that are either each separately owned, or owned in common with exclusive rights of occupation by individual own ...

s, Ohly himself made a considerable profit from a four-room condominium in the

Stockholm City Centre Stockholm City Centre (, , ) is in Stockholm Municipality, also known as the City of Stockholm, part of the Stockholm urban area in Sweden. Since 2007, Stockholm City Centre has been organized into four (sometimes translated as "boroughs"): K ...

which he bought in 2006 and sold in 2010.

Reacting to the fall of Communism

Ohly is often cited to have said he cried tears of sadness when learning of the tearing down of the

Berlin Wall The Berlin Wall (, ) was a guarded concrete Separation barrier, barrier that encircled West Berlin from 1961 to 1989, separating it from East Berlin and the East Germany, German Democratic Republic (GDR; East Germany). Construction of the B ...

. In September 2010, he claimed this a false quote political opponents and

op-ed An op-ed, short for "opposite the editorial page," is a type of written prose commonly found in newspapers, magazines, and online publications. They usually represent a writer's strong and focused opinion on an issue of relevance to a targeted a ...

writers (primarily Peter Wolodarski, political editor at

) keep attributing to him. When reporter

Janne Josefsson Jan Christer Ragnar Josefsson (born 27 June 1952) is a Swedish investigative journalist who has had numerous shows on Sveriges Television such as Fittja Paradiso, Uppdrag Granskning ''Uppdrag granskning'' (English name: ''Mission: Investigate'' ...

Uppdrag Granskning ''Uppdrag granskning'' (English name: ''Mission: Investigate'') is a Swedish television program focusing on investigative journalism Investigative journalism is a form of journalism in which reporters deeply investigate a single topic of in ...

confronted him with an interview clip from 2004 where the statement was uttered, Ohly refused to watch it. Instead, he claimed to have been happy about the events at the time, mentioning that his best friend had sent him a joyous message from

Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...

in 1989 when the city was being liberated. He initially claimed to have received an SMS message from his friend, which was impossible, since the world's first text message was sent in 1992. He later claimed that he actually spoke to his friend by phone.

References

External links

Lars Ohly
at the Left Party's website
Lars Ohly
at the

's website {{DEFAULTSORT:Ohly, Lars 1957 births 20th-century atheists 21st-century atheists Conductor (rail) European democratic socialists Leaders of political parties in Sweden Living people Male feminists Members of the Riksdag 1998–2002 Members of the Riksdag 2002–2006 Members of the Riksdag 2006–2010 Members of the Riksdag 2010–2014 Members of the Riksdag from the Left Party (Sweden) Politicians from Stockholm Swedish socialist feminists Swedish atheists Swedish communists Swedish feminists Swedish republicans