Kent Ekeroth

Who is Kent Ekeroth?

Kent Alexander Ekeroth is a Swedish politician of the Sweden Democrats, a far-right political party. He has been the member of the Riksdag since 4 October 2010, representing the Stockholm County constituency. In parliament, he has been a member of the Committee on Justice and a deputy member of Committee on European Union Affairs. Ekeroth has studied economics. He joined the Sweden Democrats in 2006. Since 2007, he is the party's secretary for international affairs.

In October 2006, Ekeroth was fired from his internship at the Swedish embassy in Tel Aviv, Israel, after the embassy had found out about his involvement with the Sweden Democrats. The embassy's actions were later criticised by the Swedish Chancellor of Justice, Göran Lambertz, who ruled that the firing was illegal and a breach of the Swedish constitutional laws. The Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs, who are responsible for all Swedish embassies abroad, also had to pay damages to Ekeroth. Ekeroth is a board member of the pan-European eurosceptic European Alliance for Freedom.

In November 2012, Ekeroth took a break from his duties after the leakage of a video filmed with his mobile phone from an event which became known as Järnrörsskandalen. Erik Almqvist had two years earlier published an edited version of the video to show how he and his party colleagues Ekeroth and Christian Westling had been verbally abused that evening. The film released in November 2012 by Expressen showed Ekeroth and his colleagues arming themselves with iron bars after brawling with a drunken man. Ekeroth argued with a young woman, who he later pushed against a car. Almvist used racist and sexist remarks withouth Ekeroth reacting against it. The police came to the place and the drunken man said that he saw Ekeroth pushing the woman. Ekeroth and his colleagues had returned when they heard the sirens and said to the police that the had been threatened by the man. While Erik Almqvist was forced to resign, Ekeroth remained in the parliament. Social democrat and chairman of the Committee on Justice Morgan Johansson was quoted as saying "I wonder what his constituents will think of him being in the Riksdag and getting paid without any real duties".