Published 2024-02-13 16.45
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The Riksdag administration has cleared Jamal El-Haj’s room in the S-kansliet – now the controversial member is non-partisan.
Magdalena Andersson is disappointed in his actions and urges him to “take his sense into custody”.
– It is unacceptable, he should leave his seat in the Riksdag, she says.
At 1 pm on Tuesday, the Riksdag administration emptied Jamal El-Haj’s room in the Social Democrats’ Riksdag chancellery. Because he is a political savage, he is no longer allowed to stay in his former room.
The other Riksdag members from S gathered in the afternoon in the Riksdag’s second chamber for a Tuesday meeting. On the way in, S leader Magdalena Andersson commented on Jamal El-Haj’s decision to go wild.
– I hope he comes to his senses and leaves his seat in the Riksdag.
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full screen Jamal El-Haj Photo: Jessica Gow/TT / TT Nyhetsbyrån
Low water mark of the Prime Minister
Andersson has received criticism for defending Jamal El-Haj, one such moment that is highlighted is when she was close to tears in an exchange of words with Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson during a Riksdag debate.
Are you self-critical of your actions?
– When we have a situation where Sweden’s prime minister stands in the Riksdag’s rostrum and, not based on facts but his own statement of his feelings, and claims that we are terrorist romantics in the Social Democrats. Then it’s clear that I, as party chairman, will bite the bullet.
Did you get too emotional?
– I think it was a low-water mark from a Swedish prime minister.
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full screen Magdalena Andersson (S) Photo: Björn Lindahl
Put his own interest before the party
The tours around Jamal El-Haj have been a series for the Social Democrats since the spring of 2023. The party leadership reprimanded him after his high-profile participation in a Palestine conference in Malmö, then it was considered that the matter was exaggerated.
Over the winter, criticism of him has grown and the S leadership recently said that the trust issue is up to his home district to decide. Last Friday, Skåne district chairman Niklas Karlsson finally announced that they no longer have confidence in El-Haj. At the same time, he was urged to resign. On the same day, Expressen’s editorial board had published new information that El Haj tried to influence the outcome of a migration case in 2017.
Magdalena Andersson says that she received information about the incident in December and that it is part of the balanced assessment that El-Haj must resign.
– He has repeatedly put his own interest before the party, she says.
The S leader adds that neither she nor S has received any information that El-Haj harbors sympathies for terrorist organizations. The reason he no longer has her trust is because he repeatedly put his own interest before the party’s. The action has disappointed her and it has also hurt the Social Democrats, she says.
