Mikael Jansson

Mikael Jansson
Mikael Jansson outside Riksdagshuset in Stockholm.
Leader of the Sweden Democrats
In office
May 1995 – 7 May 2005
Preceded by Anders Klarström
Succeeded by Jimmie Åkesson
Member of the Swedish parliament for Gävleborg County
Assumed office
4 October 2010
Personal details
Born Lars-Olof "Mikael" Jansson
(1965-09-04) 4 September 1965
Umeå, Västerbotten County, Sweden
Nationality  Swedish
Political party Centre Party
(1990-1993)
Sweden Democrats
(1993–2018)
Alternative for Sweden
(2018–)
Children 2
Occupation Politician

Lars-Olof "Mikael" Jansson (born 4 September 1965, Umeå, Västerbotten) is a Swedish politician from the party Alternative for Sweden. He is a former chairman of the Sweden Democrats (1995-2005).[1] Jansson has been a member of the Riksdag and served on the defence committee since 2010. He was defence spokesman for the Sweden Democrats 2010-18.

Political career

In 1990, Jansson joined the Centre Party and was for a time the second vice-president in Örebro's Centre Party's county organization and substitute member for the Centre Party in Vasa municipal board in Örebro. In 1993 he switched to the Sweden Democrats, where he in 1994 he was elected second vice president, and in 1995 the new party chairman[1] at the party congress in Norrköping. He served as chairman for 10 years. In May 2005 Jimmie Åkesson took over as chairman. The same year, he released the book I eget spår genom obruten terräng about his time as party leader.

He served as head of the local party district in Gothenburg from 1995-2014 and in the 2006 elections he was elected to the City Council in Gothenburg and also set up as a third candidate to the European Parliament in 2009 on the party's behalf.

Mikael Jansson was the Sweden Democrats' candidate for the post of Second Deputy Speaker of the Riksdag in 2010, but was not elected. Since 2010, he has been a member of parliament, a member of the defence committee, and a spokesperson for the party. During the years 2012-2014, Jansson was a member of the defence commission, which examines future defence policy.[2]

Mikael Jansson is also one of twelve members in the Swedish Export Control Council (ECC), a parliamentary appointed group that advise the Inspectorate of Strategic Products (ISP) on how to deal with war material export issues. The Sweden Democrats party have one seat in total in the council.[3]

On 1 February 2017 the Swedish government decided to start a new defence commission that will be finished in May 2019. Jansson was appointed representative for the Sweden Democrats party.[4]

On 9 April 2018 he defected to the SD breakaway Alternative for Sweden.[5]

Controversies

In the fall of 2016 before the US election, Jansson chose to publicly go out in the Swedish media by writing an article in one of Sweden's largest newspaper Expressen saying "Should the United States maintain its superpower status it will require that someone will take a series of difficult decisions " and attacking President Obama's foreign policy, saying "American foreign policy, both have been cynical, cruel and has failed.". Mikael Jansson had not cleared the article within his party and did not have the party's support.[6]

The Sweden Democrats party leader Jimmie Åkesson, as well as all other 348 members of parliament from all parties, declared most of them either supported Hillary Clinton or did not want to choose. Jansson was invited to several TV and radio interviews where he chose to defend his earlier statement that "Donald Trump was the best choice not only for the USA but for Europe and Sweden as well".[6] Several Swedish media called it shocking [7] and Sweden's Minister for Justice and Migration Morgan Johansson from the Social Democrats party said on Twitter "Mikael Jansson (SD) supports Trump. Not surprisingly. Haters holding together."[8]

Bibliography

  • I eget spår genom obruten terräng (2005).

References

  1. 1 2 Widfeldt, Anders (2015). Extreme Right Parties in Scandinavia. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-26589-8.
  2. ↑ http://www.regeringen.se/regeringens-politik/forsvar/forsvarspolitisk-inriktning-2016-2020/
  3. ↑ http://www.isp.se/sa/node.asp?node=1057
  4. ↑ http://www.regeringen.se/regeringens-politik/forsvarsberedningen/
  5. ↑ https://www.svt.se/nyheter/inrikes/sd-s-forra-ledare-lamnar-partiet
  6. 1 2 "Därför håller jag på Donald Trump". Expressen (in Swedish). 7 November 2016. Retrieved 11 September 2017.
  7. ↑ "Höglund: "Han kanske är en hygglig skit"". Expressen (in Swedish). 3 November 2016. Retrieved 12 September 2017.
  8. ↑ "Morgan Johansson on Twitter". Twitter. Retrieved 2017-04-28.
Party political offices
Preceded by
Anders Klarström		 Leader of Sweden Democrats
1995–2005		 Succeeded by
Jimmie Åkesson
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