Sahlin and Åkesson clash in first Riksdag duel
Sahlin charged that it is a big loss for democracy that a party with racist roots has a place in Sweden’s parliament, the Riksdag.
Her attacks on the Sweden Democrats came as she opened the first debate between party leaders in the Riksdag since the country’s September 19th general elections.
In his debut at the Riksdag’s platform, Åkesson retorted, “Mona Sahlin alleges that my party has racist roots, but it was not my party that initiated eugenics research.”
Between 1935 and 1975, a period of nearly uninterrupted rule by theSocial Democrats, Sweden sterilized a total of 63,000 people, mostly women, as part of a programme based on eugenics research with the aim of weeding out “inferiors” to create a stronger Swedish race.