Sweden’s migration minister, Johan Forssell, is basically saying, “Yeah, my kid messed up, but I’m not quitting.” Turns out, his 16-year-old son got tangled up with some white supremacist groups online a detail Forssell claims he didn’t know until Sweden’s security service called him up a few weeks back. Can you imagine getting that phone call? “Hey, your teenager’s been hanging out with actual neo-Nazis on the internet.” Nightmare fuel for any parent.
Forssell admitted to TV4 that, honestly, most parents are probably clueless about what their kids are doing on social media anyway. Hard to blame him, right? Kids these days are wild online. But here’s the twist: this all blew up after Expo, an anti-racism watchdog, outed a “close relative” of an unnamed minister for collaborating with the neo-Nazi Nordic Resistance Movement and trying to rope more folks into a couple of other extremist groups too. Spoiler: it was Forssell’s son.
Researcher Magnus Ranstorp chimed in, saying these far-right groups are getting sneakier about recruiting teens using everything from memes to flexing their physical strength to lure kids in. Honestly, it’s like a bad after-school special, but way more dangerous.
Now, Forssell’s got a bit of a reputation for bashing political extremism and preaching about parents taking more responsibility for their kids’ screw-ups. But when this hit close to home, he kept quiet, saying he wanted to protect his son, not his own political skin. He hopped onto social media to spill his side of the story, saying he and his wife had some “long and important conversations” with their son, who’s apparently ditched the extremists and feels really crappy about it all. “It’s a closed chapter,” Forssell insists. The security service (Säpo) told him his kid’s bad decisions were mostly online stuff and that he’s not under any criminal investigation.
Dr. Ranstorp pointed out that sure, this could’ve turned into a big security mess if it had gone further, but, so far, not so much. He also mentioned that the kid’s name is out there now, so he’s got to live with this for the rest of his life talk about consequences.
Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson’s not dropping Forssell, though. In fact, he went on social media and said Forssell did what any decent parent would do when your kid goes off the rails. But not everyone’s buying it. The center-right government is getting grilled for maybe having double standards about fighting extremism. The Left Party wants Forssell to answer for this in parliament once politicians are back from their summer holiday.
Oh, and don’t forget Kristersson’s government is already on thin ice for working with the Sweden Democrats, a party that, uh, let’s just say, has some skeletons in its closet. Founded by actual Nazi sympathizers. So yeah, awkward times in Swedish politics right now.