Kent Ekeroth

Kent Alexander Ekeroth (born 11 September 1981) is a Swedish politician of the Sweden Democrats.^[1][2] He has been the member of the Riksdag since 4 October 2010 (elected in the 2010 general election), representing the Stockholm County constituency.^[3] In parliament, he has been a member of the Committee on Justice and a deputy member of Committee on European Union Affairs.^[3] Ekeroth has studied economics.^[4] He joined the Sweden Democrats in 2006.^[5] Since 2007, he is the party's secretary for international affairs.^[6] In October 2006, Ekeroth was fired from his internship at the Swedish embassy in Tel Aviv, Israel, after the embassy had found out about his involvement with the Sweden Democrats.^[4] The embassy's actions were later criticised by the Swedish Chancellor of Justice, Göran Lambertz, who ruled that the firing was illegal and a breach of the Swedish constitutional laws.^[7] The Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs, who are responsible for all Swedish embassies abroad, also had to pay damages to Ekeroth.^[7] Ekeroth is a board member of the pan-European eurosceptic European Alliance for Freedom.^[8]

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.^[9][10] Erik Almqvist 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.^[11] The film released in November 2012 by Expressen showed Ekeroth and his colleagues arming themselves with iron pipes after arguing with a drunken man.^[12] Ekeroth argued with a young woman, whom he allegedly pushed against a car, while he can be heard telling her: "Back off! Back off!".^[12] Almqvist used racist and sexist remarks without Ekeroth reacting against it.^[13] 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.^[12] While Erik Almqvist was forced to resign, Ekeroth remained in the parliament. Social democrat and chairman of the Committee on Justice 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".^[14]

Ekeroth later invoiced the Swedish newspapers who used the film or stills from the event. For example, Svenska Dagbladet received an invoice of 51,725 Swedish kronor (c. 5,500 Euros).^[15] Ekeroth has denied editorial involvement in the news site Avpixlat though he has been in communication with the editorial staff via emails and the site uses his personal bank account to manage its finances.^[16] Avpixlat has been called a "hate site" for what are claimed to be expressions of violence and xenophobia.^[17] Ekeroth has also denied publishing any articles at the news site, 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 70,000SEK had immediately been further transferred to other private accounts owned by Ekeroth.^[16]

Kent Ekeroth was born to a Jewish mother^[18] originally from Kazakhstan in Central Asia ^[19] (then a part of the Soviet Union) who arrived as a refugee via Poland to Sweden in the 1970s^[20] together with her mother (Ekeroth´s grandmother) and sisters.^[21] Ekeroth has Jewish heritage, with an atheistic life stance.^[18][22]

Kent Ekeroth was on 24 November 2016 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 is arguing self-defense while witnesses from the queue allege that no punches were thrown at Ekeroth by the victim or anyone else.^[23] Prior to the incident Ekeroth had twice been denied entry to the nightclub in question, Solidaritet^[24] at Stureplan 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. The incident is under investigation by Säpo, the Swedish Security Service. Jimmie Åkesson, the leader of the Sweden Democrat party, has asked Ekeroth to take a 'political time-out'. . On February 3, 2017, following the conclusion of the investigation, the prosecutor filed charges for assault ^[25] In June 2017, the court found Ekeroth guilty of assault and he was sentenced to pay a fine^[26].

Ekeroth has previously been involved in bar/club incidents,^[27] both as attacker and victim.^[28]

Ekeroth has in a National Swedish Radio Sveriges Radio interview^[29] traced the origins of his political views to his school days where he went to what he says was an immigrant-dominated class in Halmstad where he was bullied by "groups of immigrants from Africa and the Middle East" and connected his experience to the overall immigration problems.^[30] Journalist and author Gellert Tamas has claimed that the majority of the class apparently had a Swedish background. According to Tamas the immigrant-background minority, including the Central Asian Jewish Ekeroth, had their background in (eastern) Europe.^[31] 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".^[32]

In June 2017 went to trial for hitting the person in November 2016. ^[33]

References

External links

• Kent Ekeroth, official website and blog
• Kent Ekeroth at the Swedish parliament