{"id":175062,"date":"2026-07-27T12:43:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-27T10:43:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/frihetsnytt.se\/?p=175062"},"modified":"2026-07-27T12:43:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-27T10:43:11","slug":"akesson-overger-etnisk-svenskhet-nu-racker-ett-pass","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/frihetsnytt.se\/en\/akesson-is-abandoning-ethnic-swedishness-now-all-it-takes-is-a-passport\/","title":{"rendered":"\u00c5kesson Abandons the Concept of \u201dEthnic Swedishness\u201d\u2014Now a Passport Is \u201cEnough\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Jimmie \u00c5kesson is now definitively distancing himself from the idea of \u201cethnic Swedes\u201d as the basis of Swedish identity. Instead, the SD leader asserts that Swedish citizenship alone determines who is Swedish\u2014a position that means hundreds of thousands of immigrants have automatically become Swedish.<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The debate over Swedish identity has been raging recently after the Sweden Democrats\u2019 spokesperson on migration policy <strong>Ludvig Aspling<\/strong> said that Sweden has too large a proportion of people who do not belong to the ethnically Swedish population. He has since received support from a fellow party member <strong>Marin Kinnunen<\/strong>. This has caused politicians who support immigration\u2014from the red-green parties, the Tid\u00f6 Alliance, and even the Sweden Democrats\u2014to rage and demand that \u201cSwedishness\u201d not be based on ethnicity.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignright size-large is-resized\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" data-src=\"https:\/\/frihetsnytt.se\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/0526748040023_max-768x1024.jpg\" alt=\"Ludvig Aspling. Photo: The Swedish Parliament\" class=\"wp-image-62278 lazyload\" style=\"width:226px;height:auto\"><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"768\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/frihetsnytt.se\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/0526748040023_max-768x1024.jpg\" alt=\"Ludvig Aspling. Photo: The Swedish Parliament\" class=\"wp-image-62278\" style=\"width:226px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/frihetsnytt.se\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/0526748040023_max-768x1024.jpg 768w, https:\/\/frihetsnytt.se\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/0526748040023_max-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/frihetsnytt.se\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/0526748040023_max-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https:\/\/frihetsnytt.se\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/0526748040023_max-1536x2048.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/frihetsnytt.se\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/0526748040023_max-150x200.jpg 150w, https:\/\/frihetsnytt.se\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/0526748040023_max-300x400.jpg 300w, https:\/\/frihetsnytt.se\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/0526748040023_max-696x928.jpg 696w, https:\/\/frihetsnytt.se\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/0526748040023_max-1068x1424.jpg 1068w, https:\/\/frihetsnytt.se\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/0526748040023_max-600x800.jpg 600w, https:\/\/frihetsnytt.se\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/0526748040023_max.jpg 1825w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\" \/><\/noscript><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Ludvig Aspling. Photo: The Swedish Parliament<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Leader of the Sweden Democrats <strong>Jimmie \u00c5kesson<\/strong> is now outlining what he describes as the party's official position following the high-profile debate on ethnic Swedes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>\u2013 But the reality of the political situation is that Swedish identity is based on what citizenship you hold,<\/em> \u00c5kesson tells <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/tt.omni.se\/akesson-svar-fraga-varfor-tido-tappat-stod\/a\/d4G4rO\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">TT<\/a><\/strong>. At the same time, he calls Aspling\u2019s earlier statement about ethnic Swedes \u201dunfortunate.\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Hundreds of thousands of immigrants become \u201dSwedes\u201d<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The consequence of \u00c5kesson\u2019s approach is that Swedish identity is reduced to an administrative decision. Since taking office in 2022, the Tid\u00f6 government has granted over 200,000 Swedish citizenships. According to the SD leader\u2019s definition, all of these people are therefore \u201dSwedes\u201d\u2014regardless of their origin, history, or ethnicity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u00c5kesson has previously expressed the same view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u2013<em> If you are a Swedish citizen, you are Swedish<\/em>, \", he said during a parliamentary debate, arguing at the same time that even Kurdish weddings could therefore be considered part of Swedish culture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Draws sharp criticism<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The reversal has been met with harsh criticism on social media. The account <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/FluxAlert\/status\/2081640146517073992\">Flux Alert<\/a><\/strong> writes that Swedish identity is thereby \u201dreduced to a piece of paper\u201d and that the historical community that built the country is being erased.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>\u201dOf course, being Swedish isn\u2019t something that\u2019s written in your passport\u201d<\/em>, writes another user on <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/ViennaFranconia\/status\/2081645568468627849\">X<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-x wp-block-embed-x\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"sv\" dir=\"ltr\">Jimmie \u00c5kesson says that Swedishness is defined by one's passport.<br><br>Soon he'll probably say that the hijab, burqa, and niqab are Swedish, too<br><br>According to him, you\u2019re Swedish as soon as you\u2019ve obtained Swedish citizenship. \u201cEthnic Swedes\u201d shouldn\u2019t even be mentioned. That\u2019s the new official line from the SD\u2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/W21fpTKLXo\">pic.twitter.com\/W21fpTKLXo<\/a><\/p>\u2014 Flux Alert (@FluxAlert) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/FluxAlert\/status\/2081640146517073992?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">July 27, 2026<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.x.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00c5kesson asserts that Swedish citizenship is determined by one's passport. Critics point out that more than 200,000 immigrants have thus become Swedish citizens<\/p>","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":163903,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[206,1520,205],"tags":[451,1322,156],"class_list":["post-175062","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-inrikes","category-stor","category-nyheter","tag-etnicitet","tag-jimmie-akesson","tag-sverigedemokraterna"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/frihetsnytt.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175062","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/frihetsnytt.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/frihetsnytt.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/frihetsnytt.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/frihetsnytt.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=175062"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/frihetsnytt.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175062\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/frihetsnytt.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/163903"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/frihetsnytt.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=175062"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/frihetsnytt.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=175062"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/frihetsnytt.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=175062"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}