History
The party's first leadership consisted of people who left the Sweden Democrats, after criticizing this party for right-wing populism and for abandoning the importance of ethnicity in nationalism. [12] At the founding, the National Democrats themselves introduced four unchanging statutes which state that the party is guided by a national democratic ethnopluralism. Blue and yellow were adopted as party colors, and a blue-yellow sail as the party symbol.
Anders Steen was elected first party leader for the National Democrats, and his stepson Tor Paulsson was elected party organizer. Marc Abramsson was elected chairman of the National Democratic Youth (NDU), and Vávra Suk was elected party secretary and chief ideologue.
In the general elections in 2002, the National Democrats received 4,122 votes in the parliamentary [13] and four municipal council seats - two in Haninge municipality and two in Södertälje municipality. The party ran a no-campaign during the referendum on the introduction of the euro as a currency, and in the 2004 European elections, the National Democrats received 7,209 votes, corresponding to 0.29 percent of the vote. [14] After midsummer 2004, the party suffered a major scandal after party organizer Tor Paulsson was arrested by police for assault, something that received special attention when the assailant was Paulsson's cohabitant and Paulsson himself condemned Muslim men's violence against women. In December of the same year, Paulsson deviated from an unattended leave, which led to his being called. [15]
During the ensuing conflicts, large parts of the organization collapsed, and many driving activists and local branches became passive. The conflicts were further exacerbated by the fact that party leader Anders Steen presented a motion in Haninge's municipal council, that the municipality should make stronger efforts against anti-Semitism. The party had on several occasions taken a stand for the Palestinians' fight for their own nation state, which created strong criticism of the motion. Critics interpreted it as a passive support for Israeli imperialism, and Anders Steen left the party shortly afterwards with the local branch in Haninge.
At an extraordinary Riksdag meeting on 3 October 2004, Tomas Johansson was elected the new party leader for the National Democrats, and Marc Abramsson became the new party organizer, which contributed to closer cooperation with the newly formed Freedom Party. On December 9, 2005, the Freedom Party joined the National Democrats, and Nils-Eric Hennix was elected new party leader. Hennix introduced two new points in the program of principles, which concerned demands for large tax cuts, as well as increased animal welfare. In the 2006 election The National Democrats received 3,064 votes in the parliamentary elections, which corresponds to 0.06 percent of the votes. The party also received three municipal council seats - two in Södertälje municipality and one in Nykvarn municipality. Shortly afterwards, Hennix resigned as party leader due to illness, and was replaced by Abramsson.
In realpolitik, the party has approached a left-wing nationalist position, but retained the demands for increased animal welfare. On February 2, 2008, the party held a new launch in Stockholm, where they adopted fire yellow as the new party color, and chose the cloudberry flower as the new party symbol. An exception to its strictly independent line was the party's participation in the Salem March. Following previous conflicts with the organizers of the Salem Foundation, the demonstration has assumed a more popular appearance that the party can support.
During Abramsson's work as organizer and party leader, ties to other European national democratic parties, mainly the German NPD and British BNP but also the northern Italian Lega Nord, have also been strengthened.
In the 2010 parliamentary elections , the National Democrats received 1,141 votes, which corresponds to 0.02 percent of the votes, 1,923 fewer (a decline of 0.04 percentage points) than in the 2006 parliamentary elections where the party received 3,064 or 0.06 percent of the electorate's votes cast. The National Democrats won 2 municipal seats in Södertälje and 1 in Nykvarn.
Just before the 2011 Riksdag meeting, Deputy Party leader Daniel Spansk left the National Democrats together with three others in a protest against party leader Marc Abramsson's leadership style. [16]
