This political party was formed in the mid 00’s by those who thought that Sweden wasn’t moving as quickly as it should when it came to women’s rights. So far, they haven’t had much success in neither local, national nor European elections and are not in parliament. There have been a couple of interesting schisms along the way, perhaps most notably when one of the founding members, Susanne Linde, resigned. She claimed that one of the other members of the executive committee, Tiina Rosenberg, had called her a “middle class hag” who was a “gender traitor” for having sex with men instead of being homosexual.
Some claim that left-wing extremists have hijacked the party and their current leader, Gudrun Schyman, is the former leader of the communist Left Party. They are also famous for burning 13000 dollars (!) in a publicity stunt, aimed at highlighting the differences between men and women’s pay. This made some onlookers wonder if women really should be allowed to handle any money at all. Want to see what it looks like when you burn more than ten thousand dollars? Go right ahead.
Fredrik Federley is a politician for the Swedish Center party and a member of parliament. He was the first openly homosexual man to lead a Swedish youth party. His controversial views have brought him into the spotlight on several occasions, like the time he was the only person to vote for legalizing prostitution. Kind of like Ron Paul, only younger and with a female alter ego that sometimes comes out to play.
In 2010 Federley was treated to a luxurious cruise by private companies, something his opponents called a bribe. He dismissed the criticism by saying that it was his drag personality Ursula who had been invited to go, so that she could write about the trip for the gay website Hanky. I think that is one of my all-time favorite excuses and have tried to use something similar in my own life when caught, but to no avail. He has been threatened by several different groups, has a more advanced security detail than other politicians and was assaulted outside his home in 2010. In 2011 he got his own radio show on the country’s first commercial talk radio station (see “Radio Ett”).
