Political party Sweden Democrats | Party Sweden Democrats | |
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Born 21 January 1949 (age 68) ( 1949-01-21 ) | ||
Jonas Viktor Göran Åkerlund (born 21 January 1949) is a Swedish politician and vice party leader for the Swedish Democrats (SD). He is also the party's press spokesman and member of parliament since the general elections in 2010. He started his political career in the Swedish Democrats party in the 1970s. In 1985, he changed party affiliation to the Moderate Party, and in 1988–1991 he was the leading member of that party in the Ockelbo Municipality city council. In 1995 he went back to supporting the SD. He was the party's press secretary in 2004–2005, and in 2005 he also worked as the party's press spokesperson. Åkerlund was elected second vice party president for SD in 2005 and vice party president in 2006. In the 2002 general elections, Åkerlund was candidate for the Riksdag as no. 16 on the SD list and first on the list in the Stockholm regional elections. He was also first on the list for SD in the Stockholm city council elections.
In the 2006 general elections, Åkerlund was a candidate for SD for the Riksdag as the fourth choice, for Stockholm regional election as no. 9, and for Stockholm city council as no. 12 on the ballot. In the parish council elections in 2009 he was the party's number one candidate in the election to the Swedish Church Convocation, and as no. 7 in the Stockholm congregation election.
Åkerlund was voted into the Riksdag in the general elections in 2010, for the Blekinge electoral district in seat no. 90. As a member of the Riksdag he became member of Committee on the Constitution, and deputy member of the Committee on Business and Industry.
In 2013 Åkerlund gained attention for having called immigrants "parasites" during a broadcast on SD's own radio station in 2002 after a recording of the broadcast was discovered. After his comments had become more publicly known in 2013, he stated that he had said it to provoke people. In 2014 he was criticised by SD party leader Jimmie Åkesson, after he was seen acting in a threatening manner towards a female journalist in the Riksdag.