How the Swedish far right party, Sweden Democrats leader became the highest paid politician in Sweden

Sunday, 02 June 2013
The head of the Swedish far right party has emerged the best-paid politician in the country with much of the pay coming from taxpayers, which includes those his hard anti immigration, anti EU and racist rhetoric are attacking.

The Swedish taxpayers who are made up of immigrants working in the healthcare, hospitality and cleaning, among others are paying the far right leader to popularize is racist and far rights ideas and make their lives in Sweden miserable.

Swedish television in one of its political programs that reviewed parliamentary parties and how they pay their leaders show that there is a growing discontent within Sweden Democrats as it turns out that the part leadership has become more money hungry than what their party espouse.

Sweden Democrats is one of the smallest parties in the Swedish parliament in terms of number of members. This has not stopped the party secretary Björn Söder and party leader Jimmie Åkesson to become two of Sweden's best-paid politicians. Some authorities see skilful leadership, manipulation, and boldness in attaining this feat.
how much swedish politicians earn
Image from Swedish television

The review shows that Jimmie Akesson gets Skr1.1 million in annual pay from his party and is only beaten by the Social Democrats who pay more to their leader, partly because their party leader, Stefan Löfven, is not a parliamentarian and therefore receive no pay from the taxpayers.

Sweden Democrats pay Jimmie Åkesson an extra Skr38 000 a month, which gives him an annual salary of approximately Skr1.1 million.
Sweden Democrat party secretary Björn Söder get nearly Skr350 000 from his party beyond parliamentary salary of Skr700 000. It provides an annual salary of over a million Krona and it makes him one of the best paid party secretaries.
Sweden Democrats management comprises, besides Jimmie Åkesson and Björn Söder, MPs such as Richard Jomshof and Mattias Karlsson. These two also receive pay from the party in addition to their parliamentary salaries. They have Skr140 000 extra a year because they are members of the so-called Executive Committee.

Tomas Fredriksson, Sweden Democrats leader in Olofstroem is not happy and believe that politicians should deal carefully with the taxpayer money He receive no compensation from their party. However, the municipality pays him Skr100 in appearance fee and Skr50 per half hour when they have meetings, a far cry from the millions splashed by the top far right leaders. He is critical of Jimmie Åkesson and Björn Söder for how much they earn.

After the Sweden Democrats, the Centre Party pays Annie Loof almost Skr37 000 per month extra on top of her pay from the state as a parliamentarian.
Sweden television says it has seen an internal list that shows how much the Sweden Democrats pay themselves. In addition to the four mentioned above, the Vice President, Jonas Åkerlund earns Skr 42,000 per year in addition to the parliamentary salary, while the second vice president, Carina Herrstedt get Skr21 000 over her parliamentary pay.

Discontent against the party leadership's pay is spreading to different cell of the party. From the core in Skåne, southern Sweden where the far rights has its roots and headquarters, discontent is now spreading to other places such as western Sweden.
The Sweden Democrats group leadership in Gothenburg internally questioned the levels of pay to their leaders, according to Swedish television. By asking that question, the group leader was ousted from his post in March this year.
Even in Sweden Democrats' stronghold, Skåne municipality of Bjuv, there is growing irritation against the millions paid in salaries to the so-called top officials.
As for Jimmie Åkesson, he defends his pay that as a party leader and a parliamentarian, he feels that his pay is well earned. He told Swedish television that he has two jobs and for that, he has the right to collect all the money that is paid to him both from his party as party leader and, from the government as a parliamentarian.
By Scancomark.com Team

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