INTERVIEW: Probe into minister's relative has revealed 'threat to Swedish security'

Local Sweden

16 hours ago

In early July, anti-racist magazine Expo broke the news that a family member of a Swedish government minister was active in white supremacist groups. The Local spoke to Erik Glaad, one of the journalists behind the story, to find out more.
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How did Expo carry out the investigation?
'This investigation is based on following the digital trail left by the minister's family member,' Glaad said. 'By doing so, we've been able to document extreme right-wing activity and engagement since August 2024.'
The close relative of the minister, neither of whom were named in Expo's report, has 'sought out and joined' what Glaad described as some of Sweden's most racist groups, including Det fria Sverige and Aktivklubb Sverige.
The individual – described in Swedish as an anhörig, which usually refers to a close family member – has also collaborated with an activist from Nordiska motståndsrörelsen, Glaad said, a group which was classified as a terror group by the USA last summer.
Who are these groups and why are they dangerous?
'Det fria Sverige is a group with the long term aim of taking back Swedish society from immigrants, which, they believe, are occupying it,' Glaad said. 'They want to build a separatist movement in society for white people.'
'Nordiska motståndsrörelsen is potentially Sweden's most well-known neo-Nazi organisation, with a long history of political violence, and Aktivklubb Sverige is a violent neo-Nazi network which exists internationally with a few branches in Sweden.'
The individual's involvement in Aktivklubb Sverige is of particular concern as Swedish police believe that the group is actively trying to map Swedish officials as potential targets for blackmail.
'They take part in combat training, with the long-term goal of creating a right-wing extremist militia, and the network they are a part of has access to weapons and explosives," Glaad said.
The journalist added that there is no evidence in Expo's investigation to indicate that the relative in this case was targeted by any of these groups as a potential way of getting closer to the minister in question, and that they appear to have sought the groups out by themselves.
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Why hasn't Expo named the minister?
Expo has not named the minister in question or given any details as to the relationship between the minister and the person involved in the white supremacist groups, other than describing them as 'a young person'.
Asked why Expo chose not to reveal the minister's identity, Glaad said: 'It's an ethical decision."
He said it was difficult to go into too much detail without revealing specific details.
'Generally, though, you can say that within Swedish press ethics there is a very clear framework for who should be protected and who should not be protected from potential publicity damages," he said.
Publicity damages, or a publicitetsskada in Swedish, take into account things like the age of the person the information concerns, as well as their role in society – for example if they are a public figure or not.
'Because of that, we've made decisions that would not have been necessary in other cases. But in this case, that's why we've had to do this hard anonymisation," Glaad said.
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In other words the press is not protecting the minister from potential damages, but rather their family member, whose identity would also be revealed if journalists named the minister.
"This is regarding a child who is not a public individual,' the government's deputy head of communications Linda Hallenberg told the TT newswire.
Glaad did not wish to comment on the age of the minister's family member or give any other details which could reveal the identity.
How does Expo know that the minister and the activist have a close connection?
Expo also established a connection between the family member and the minister, among other things due to the fact that they appear in photographs together.
'There are other types of details which I can't discuss here, because of the limitations placed on this due to the anonymity, but we have been able to securely establish a connection between the family member and the minister,' he said.
Expo mapped the family member's actions online, including on a number of social media accounts and in chat groups they gained access to.
What has the minister said about this?
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At the time of writing, the minister's team had had almost a week to respond to requests for comment from Expo.
'They have refused to answer any questions. They stopped responding to us once we told them we were going to publish this story and asked for a response to our questions,' Glaad said.
'We contacted the minister's press office on Thursday [June 26th] and our contact with them ended late that evening. Since then I've tried to restart that contact and say we want a response to our questions, but that hasn't happened, because they haven't replied to us at all. There's been complete silence from them since [June 26th].'
Glaad added that it is 'clearly a sensitive issue for the government."
'These are questions like 'is the minister aware of this engagement in right-wing extremist groups?', 'did the minister tell the Security Police or another security service about this?', 'when did that happen?', 'how did the minister find out about their family member's engagement in these groups?'. Questions which should be easy to answer but which they have chosen to stay quiet on," Glaad said.
Why is the story important even without naming the minister?
Glaad said that the investigation shows "there is a threat to Swedish security", and that in itself is important enough to inform the public about even though the minister's identity has been anonymised.
According to Kim Hakkarainen, a Swedish security expert Expo spoke to, the connection between the minister and their relative could be a security risk.
"It's a weakness which could be used by an antagonist, for example another state or antagonistic actor who wants to harm Sweden, in order to influence or use the minister's family member as an enabler," he told Expo.
Glaad added that he understands the decision to anonymise the minister involved 'has caused reactions,' and that other media organisations may make different decisions.
'Other Swedish media might come to a different conclusion and that's up to them. That's how it works in the Swedish press, every editorial team makes its own decisions on what to publish, and that can vary a lot.'