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🇸🇪 Sweden /Crime & Justice

SD senior official Gustav Gellerbrant calls investigation ‘a series of claims and fragments of information’

From Dagens Nyheter · () Swedish

Translated from Swedish and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

News Named sources Ongoing story
  • Gustav Gellerbrant rejected Expo’s claims linking his partner to Russian networks and the spread of Russian propaganda, calling them a series of claims and fragments of information.
  • He said he would hand in his pass card and computer at the Government Offices and take immediate parental leave, citing pressure on his family.
  • Opposition politicians called for the couple to be suspended, while SD leader Jimmie Åkesson said the matter did not amount to a security crisis and Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said it would be serious if the claims were true.

Gustav Gellerbrant, head of the Sweden Democrats’ coordination office and one of party leader Jimmie Åkesson’s closest aides, is stepping away from his duties after an investigation into his partner. He will take immediate parental leave and hand in his pass card and computer at the Government Offices.

a long series of claims and fragments of information

· Gustav GellerbrantHe used the phrase to reject Expo’s reporting about his partner.

Gellerbrant responded for the first time to reporting by Expo, which earlier this week linked an SD employee to Russian networks and the spread of Russian propaganda. The woman is Gellerbrant’s partner. In a social media post, he described the reporting as “a long series of claims and fragments of information” that sought to cast suspicion on her because of her Russian background.

He argued that some of her social media posts were old and that Expo had not explained what he called “obvious irony and sarcasm.” He also said she had criticized Russia several times online, including describing February 24, 2022, as the worst day of her life.

obvious irony and sarcasm

· Gustav GellerbrantHe said Expo had not distinguished these elements in some of his partner’s old social media posts.

Expo highlighted a Kremlin-sponsored trip to Russia that she made with a former SD member of parliament in 2017. Gellerbrant wrote that the trip was clearly inappropriate, but said his partner, then a newly hired political secretary, was not responsible for judging whether it should take place or how it was conducted. He added that she later cooperated with European authorities.

Russia’s war and aggressive conduct toward Europe are the most existential threat we have to deal with

· Gustav GellerbrantHe acknowledged the threat posed by Russia while criticizing the media coverage.

Gellerbrant called Russia’s war and aggressive conduct toward Europe “the most existential threat we have to deal with,” but said the Expo report and subsequent coverage had been “unacceptable.” He described the media attention as a campaign that had placed “an inhuman strain” on his family. Opposition Social Democrat Peter Hultqvist demanded that the couple be suspended. Åkesson rejected the demand, saying it was not a security crisis because the authorities had not taken action. Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said that, if the claims were true, the matter would be serious.

If that is true, it is serious

· Ulf KristerssonThe Swedish prime minister reacted to the claims reported by Expo.
About this summary

Originally published by Dagens Nyheter in Swedish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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