Björn Söder

Björn Olof Söder (born 3 January 1976) is a Swedish politician who served as Second Deputy Speaker of the Riksdag from September 2014 to September 2018. He has been a Member of the Riksdag (SD) for Stockholm County since October 2010. He previously served as Leader of the Sweden Democrats in the Riksdag from 2010 to 2014 and Secretary of the Sweden Democrats from 2005 to 2015.

Political career Early political career Söder first joined the Swedish Progress Party in 1991, but left the party in 1994, after internal struggles and instead joined the Sweden Democrats. On 24 September 2010, he was elected as group leader of the Sweden Democrats in the Riksdag.

On 19 July 2021 Söder was awarded the Mkhitar Gosh Medal by president Armen Sarksyan and presented by the Armenian ambassador to Sweden Alexander Arzoumanian. Björn was awarded the medal for his work on the Armenian genocide and for working on making the Swedish government recognize the genocide. Also receiving medals were fellow MPs Markus Wiechel and Arin Karapet as well as Martin Brozek, the International advisor of the Riksdag who all received the Medal of Honour of the National Assembly of Armenia.

Controversies 2012 comments about Eurovision After Sweden's victory in the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest, he expressed disappointment and shame that the song was performed in English and not Swedish. After a massive backlash, he deleted the comment from his social media pages, and said that he now realizes that the Eurovision song contest "apparently is a holy cow that must not be criticized in any way, just like multiculturalism."

2014 allegations of antisemitism The Jerusalem Post reported in 2014 that Björn Söder declared in an interview that most people of Jewish origin, who have become Swedes, leave their Jewish identity and that it is important to distinguish between citizenship and nationhood. Lena Posner Körösi, of the Official Council of Jewish Communities in Sweden told The Guardian that Söder’s statements were “exactly like in 1930s Germany” and that they constitute “good old right-wing anti-Semitism". The statement of the Sweden Democrat politician about Jews was listed as one of the ten worst anti-Semitic incidents in the world in 2014 by the Simon Wiesenthal Center, according to Dagens Nyheter.

Söder responded to these claims of anti-Semitism with a column of his own that appeared in The Jerusalem Post on 5 January 2015, writing in part, "In a biased article in one of Sweden’s largest newspapers, Dagens Nyheter (DN: Daily News), some of my statements were dramatically taken out of context to erroneously credit me with opinions that do not correspond with reality. Politically biased journalists and political opponents have further distorted the statements, resulting in a presentation virtually the complete opposite of my actual statements and opinions. This is now distributed in the international press, such as in the Post, which therefore necessitates a clarification on my part."

Comments about LGBT people In 2007, Söder was criticised after writing a blog post in which he claimed that the normalisation of LGBT people would lead to the normalisation of "bestiality and pedophilia", saying that "these sexual deviants are not normal and will never be normal."

In August 2023, Söder faced criticism after posting a tweet during Stockholm Pride that linked "Pride" to pedophilia, as well as accusing Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson of "legitimising pedophilia" for raising a pride flag at his official residence. In a subsequent post, Söder wrote that everyone should be allowed to love who they want "as long as no innocent person is harmed", and added: "But don't mix in children and minors. Then you will face resistance!"

His comments garnered criticism from several government ministers who depended on the Sweden Democrats for support under the Tidö Agreement, including Minister for Foreign Affairs Tobias Billström from the Moderate Party, and Minister for Gender Equality Paulina Brandberg from the Liberals.

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