Lars Ohly
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Lars-Magnus Harald Christoffer Ohly (born January 13, 1957) is a Swedish politician and the current leader of the Swedish Left Party. He was elected Party Leader on February 20, 2004, succeeding Ulla Hoffmann.
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[edit] Early life and career
Lars Ohly was born in Spånga in Stockholm. The son of a priest, Ohly grew up in various places around Stockholm. After finishing gymnasium (high school) in 1978 he started working at the Swedish State Railways (SJ), where he later became a conductor (Swedish: tågmästare). 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 shortly left and became more radical. He joined the Communist Youth (current Young Left) in 1976 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. Between 1994 and 2000 he held the post of Party Secretary and in 2004 he was elected Party Leader. He has been a Member of Parliament (the Riksdag) since 1998.
Lars Ohly is married with two children.
[edit] Controversies
[edit] Communism
Lars Ohly used to be an outspoken communist. On October 5, 2005, Uppdrag granskning in Sveriges Television (Swedish National Television) aired a programme[1] about Lars Ohly's background and views on democracy. 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[2]. 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 custody - with a number of critical references to Stalin being removed. The investigation also showed that Ohly branded himself as a leninist 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 October 30, 2005, Ohly declared on Swedish TV that he would stop labeling himself a communist[3]. But he stressed at the same time that he would stay faithful to the Communistic ideals and always would keep fighting for the classless society.
[edit] Swedish-Cuban Association
During the controversy regarding Ohlys views on communism and his defenition of socialism and socialist leaderhsip, Ohlys membership in the Swedish-Cuban Association became known. The Swedish-Cuban Association supports Fidel Castro's position in Cuba and does not want to label the country as a dictatorship. Ohly then released a statement that he considers Cuba to be a dictatorship and that he his critical of the lack of political freedom in Cuba, a statement which was heavily criticized by the chairperson of the Swedish-Cuban Association. In September 2005, Ohly declared that he had left the organisation[4].
[edit] Other controversies
- Ohly's daughter goes to a private school, which stands in contrast to Ohly's and the Left Party's stance that all schools should be run by the government. Ohly has defended himself saying that his children are not public figures and that their choices in life are not subject to public scrutiny[5].
- During a live debate in Swedish television channel TV4 on September 18, 2006, the day after the Swedish general election, Ohly caused some controversy when he raised his middle finger to the right-wing commentator Marie Söderqvist who called his leadership style typical of a communist[6][7]. Ohly later apologized and said that he experienced a "temporary blackout"[8].
[edit] Trivia
- Lars Ohly is a fan of Djurgårdens IF.
- During his first weeks as party leader, Ohly claimed in a interview to once have played Football on the same team as Swedish football legend Nacka Skoglund. It later came to light that this claim was most likely fictious and a indeliberate error on the part of Ohly[9][10].
[edit] References
- ^ Lars Ohlys syn på demokrati, Uppdrag granskning, October 2005 (Swedish)
- ^ Vad har Ohly sagt? Här är citaten, Uppdrag granskning, October 2005 (Swedish)
- ^ Lars Ohly slutar kalla sig kommunist, Sveriges Television, October 30, 2005 (Swedish)
- ^ Lars Ohly lämnar Kuba-förening, Sveriges Radio, September 24, 2005 (Swedish)
- ^ Lars Ohly: Därför går mina barn i privatskola, Dagens Industri, August 3, 2006 (Swedish)
- ^ Här ger Ohly fingret åt högerdebattören, Ekonominyheterna, September 18, 2006 (Swedish)
- ^ Ohly pekade finger i direktsändning, Svenska Dagbladet, September 18, 2006 (Swedish)
- ^ Expressens krönikör fick fingret - av Ohly, Expressen, September 18, 2006 (Swedish)
- ^ Mötte du Nacka, Ohly?, Dagens Nyheter, February 20, 2004 (Swedish)
- ^ Ohly: "Jag måste ha stått vid sidan av", Dagens Nyheter, February 19, 2004 (Swedish)
[edit] External links
- Profile at the Left Party website
- Lars Ohly at the Riksdag website
| Preceded by: Maggi Mikaelsson |
Secretary of the Swedish Left Party 1994 – 2000 |
Succeeded by: Pernilla Zethraeus |
| Preceded by: Ulla Hoffmann |
Leader of the Swedish Left Party 2004 – present |
Incumbent |
