The secretary of Sweden’s Liberal Party on Tuesday called on the right-wing populist Sweden Democrats to take action against one of its MPs over a highly controversial ‘culture wars’ remark following the party leader’s comments on drag queens.
Sunday’s party leaders’ debate on Swedish TV opened up a rift between the government and the far-right Sweden Democrats on cultural policy as leader of the Sweden Democrats, Jimmie Åkesson declared that politicians must be able to set limits on what culture should be financed with taxpayers’ money.
“I think it’s completely insane that ‘shameless wine whore’ gets tax money to read stories to children,” Åkesson said, referring to a drag queen artist called Miss Shameless.
Liberal Party leader Johan Pehrson immediately protested, while Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson and Christian Democrat Vice President Jakob Forssmed emphasised that politicians should keep their distance from culture.
Their three parties make up Sweden’s ruling coalition, which needs the political support of the Sweden Democrats to stay in power.
But the controversy continued to brew behind the scenes this week, with talks of the start of “culture wars”.
“The culture war has begun. And now conservatism will win. The cultural policy of the decadent left will soon be a thing of the past. For too long, it has been dominant due to unbridled socialist influence and a neutered bourgeoisie. But now it’s over”, Sweden Democrat MP Björn Söder tweeted.
The ruling coalition, often accused by the opposition of being too complacent with the eurosceptic Sweden Democrats, reacted strongly, with the secretary of the Liberal Party, Gulan Avci calling the Sweden Democrats to account.
“It’s time to have a development dialogue with Björn Söder. What he writes is absurd,” Avci said, adding, “Someone in SD should explain to him that an arm’s length distance is required. Politicians, both right and left and especially Söder, should give a damn about the content of culture.”
According to Söder, however, the Liberals should join him in his criticism of the “culture wars” and to “do away with the socialism prevalent in culture.”
When asked if it could develop into a problem for the coalition cooperation with the far-right, Avci answered: “No, but it is time for SD to have a dialogue with Björn Söder.”
(Charles Szumski | EURACTIV.com)
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