In a video distributed by the far-right party Alternative for Sweden, football legend Glenn Hysén is seen advertising one of the party’s meetings in Gothenburg. But he says that AFS deceived him.
– It’s absolutely hellish, says Glenn Hysén to Expo.
You are currently reading free content
Your support helps us fight racism and promote democracy through scrutiny and dissemination of knowledge.
The former soccer player Glenn Hysén promotes Alternative for Sweden’s May Day meeting in a video that is spreading on the far-right party’s social media.
In the clip, which the party added its graphics to and which resembles a video greeting, Glenn Hysén begins by giving the thumbs up and then says that people should go and listen to party leader Gustav Kasselstrand when he gives one of his speeches about Sweden leaving the EU .
– Sweden is a democracy and everyone has the right to express their opinion, so I think you should go and listen when Gustav starts his Swexit tour here in Gothenburg, says Glenn Hysén in the video and ends with another thumbs up.
But when Expo talks to Glenn Hysén, he says that the party has deceived him.
Listen to Studio Expo:
Split party
Alternative for Sweden sprung from the Sweden Democrats’ former youth union SDU, whose leadership was expelled from the party in 2018. The party’s campaigns are characterized by anti-Muslim propaganda and racism against minorities. The party also spreads conspiracy theories about the corona vaccine and campaigns for Sweden to leave the EU.
The party has recently been rocked by internal strife, and in March 2023 a large number of members defected from the party board because of how they felt the party leader and his entourage handled their assignments and the party’s finances.
Close ties to the white power environment
The party wants a total asylum freeze and that all citizenships issued from the year 2000 onwards should be reviewed. People who the party does not believe meet the criteria that have been set must be forced to “return”. The party’s criteria for citizenship are vaguely designed, among other things AFS wants it to be a requirement that people who moved to Sweden should not have lived on benefits for a “considerable time of their stay”. The party also wants to abolish all politics based on integration.
Over the years, several of the party’s parliamentary candidates have been exposed for having spread anti-Semitic, pro-Nazi and conspiracy messages on social media. One of the party’s parliamentary candidates received a lot of attention in the national press in 2018 after he pasted the anti-Semitic hate image of a crooked nose (Jew sex) on a commuter train window in Stockholm. Alternative for Sweden took no action after the scandals that were brought to attention.
During the 2022 election campaign, the party had close ties to the Swedish white power environment in that several of their leading candidates were simultaneously active in the white power organization Det Fria Sverige, something the party did not take any measures against.
In 2021, the party manifested together with the Nordic Resistance Movement on November 30.
Previous collaboration with Rasmus Paludan
Before the church election in 2021, Alternativ för Sverige started a collaboration with the Danish right-wing extremist Rasmus Paludan, who has become notorious for burning Korans. Paludan was to participate in Alternative for Sweden’s election campaign. However, the party broke off the collaboration after it was revealed by the Danish media that Paludan had discussed sex with minor children on his Discord channel.
“It’s awful”
When Expo asks Glenn Hysén about the video, he says that he doesn’t even remember when he recorded it and that Alternativ för Sverige tricked him.
– This has become a hell of a life, I don’t understand anything. I receive orders via Memmo with instructions. I just do what they say. I was shocked that it is such a life.
Do you know Alternative for Sweden?
– No, I have no idea.
Has the party deceived you?
– Yes, apparently they have. It’s a hell of a life about this now.
How about this video being used for their purposes now then?
– It’s downright awful.
But the term Swexit you say in the video, you don’t know it?
– No, not a clue. I thought this was a normal Memmo that you pay 400 kroner to get.
So you are not a member of the party then?
– No, I don’t even know what it is, replies Glenn Hysén and laughs.
Kasselstrand (AFS): “hyenas”
According to AFS party leader Gustav Kasselstrand, Glenn Hysén should have understood who ordered the video of him because Kasselstrand’s name and email address with Alternative for Sweden’s name, according to him, appeared in the order.
“Of course, all celebrities poodle when the hyenas in Swedish mass media start their joint drive. So also this time. It’s called repentance under the gallows,” writes Gustav Kasselstrand in an email to Expo.
Erik Glaad
