Country seen as champion of equal rights faces reckoning after senior politician says she felt compelled to quit
Increasing hate, threats and harassment against female politicians are scaring women away from public life and forcing them to censor themselves, the Swedish government’s equality agency has said, warning that this poses a “big threat to democracy.”
Women’s safety in politics has come under heightened scrutiny in the Scandinavian country since October, when Anna-Karin Hatt resigned as leader of the Centre party after only five months in office, citing hate and threats.
“To constantly feel like you need to look over your shoulder and [to] not feel completely safe, not even at home … I am affected by it much more deeply than I thought I would [be],” she said at the time.
Context: Centerpartiet (“The Centre party”) has been rather uniquely targeted by the troll factories (russian / right-wing) here in Sweden since they’re the only non-left party in our parliament saying NO to cooperating/ruling together with our fascist party (“Sverigedemokraterna”). They’re the good economic-right without the authoritarianism and white power stuff.
And yes, it seems the level of hatred was a lot higher for the last woman party leader (Lööf) and now Hatt. In between them there was a male for a while who was mostly anonymous.
Yeah, but Demirok was constantly the butt end of jokes. The fact that he was so non-descript was a detriment to the party.
Funny that you mention him in passing without even knowing the name. He’s just “the guy”. Pretty funny and fitting honestly.