Lars Ohly

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Lars Ohly
Swedish Parliament
for Stockholm County
In office
1998–2014
Personal details
Born (1957-01-13) 13 January 1957 (age 67)
Train attendant
Websitevansterpartiet.se

Lars-Magnus Harald Christoffer Ohly (Swedish pronunciation:

Swedish parliament
from 1998 to 2014.

Early life and career

Lars Ohly was born in the

conductor (Swedish
: tågmästare). He is still employed at SJ, but is on leave of absence since 1994.

Ohly became a member of the

Member of Parliament
since 1998.

Lars Ohly was in 2008 nominated for the award Kurd friend of the year (Swedish: Årets kurdvän 2008).[3] Årets kurdvän is one of the awards presented annually by the Kurdish gala jury that celebrates the active and successful Kurds and friends of Kurds in Sweden.[4]

In August 2011, Ohly announced his resignation. He was elected party chairman on 20 February 2004, succeeding Ulla Hoffmann.

In November 2017, Ohly was banned from attending Left Party events, including the party congress, after allegations of sexual harassment towards women.[5] He left the party in January 2018.[6]

Controversies

Nacka Skoglund

During his first weeks as party chairman, Ohly claimed in an interview to once have, as a boy, played

football against Swedish football legend Nacka Skoglund in a friendly match. The newspaper Dagens Nyheter later revealed that this claim was most likely fictitious.[7] When confronted about this, Ohly claimed it to be an indeliberate error on his part.[8]

Being a communist or not

Lars Ohly used to be an outspoken communist. On 5 October 2005,

Eastern bloc.[10] Several prominent party members, among them former party leader Lars Werner, also witnessed about Ohly's views. It was also found that, in 2000, Ohly had reworded a letter of apology to the "Kiruna-Swedes" - victims of harassment from the Left Party after their return home from Soviet custody - with a number of critical references to Joseph Stalin being removed. The programme also showed that Ohly branded himself as a Leninist
as late as 1999.

Following this controversy, the leaders of all the other parliamentary parties have urged Ohly to drop his adherence to communism. On 30 October 2005, Ohly declared on Swedish TV that he would stop labeling himself a communist.[11] But he stressed at the same time that he would stay faithful to the ideals of communism and always would keep fighting for a "classless society".

Swedish-Cuban Association

During the controversy regarding Ohly's views on communism and his definition of

Swedish-Cuban Association became known. The Swedish-Cuban Association supported the government of Fidel Castro in Cuba and does not want to label the country as a dictatorship. Ohly then released a statement that he considers Cuba to be a dictatorship and that he is critical of the lack of political freedom in Cuba, a statement which in response was criticized by the chairman of the Swedish-Cuban Association. In September 2005, Ohly declared that he had left the organisation.[12]

Middle finger during a live debate

During a live debate on Swedish

blackout".[14]

Choosing private welfare

Ohly is strongly opposed to letting privately owned companies operate in industries traditionally controlled by the Swedish state, for instance

condominiums, Ohly himself made a considerable profit from a four-room condominium in the Stockholm City Centre which he bought in 2006 and sold in 2010.[17]

Reacting to the fall of Communism

Ohly is often cited to have said he cried tears of sadness when learning of the tearing down of the

SMS message from his friend, which was impossible, since the world's first text message was sent in 1992. He later claimed that he actually spoke to his friend by phone.[18]

References

  1. ^ Olsson, Karin (13 July 2006). "Prästsonen som såg rött" (in Swedish). Expressen. Retrieved 3 August 2007.
  2. ^ Nu är tiden ute för Lars Ohly
  3. ^ Dags för Kurdgalan 2009 Archived 2011-08-12 at the Wayback Machine Beyan.net, 21 January 2009
  4. ^ Kurdgalan's weblog
  5. ^ Nyheter, SVT. "Lars Ohly portas från V-arrangemang". SVT Nyheter (in Swedish). Retrieved 25 November 2017.
  6. ^ Holmgren, Mia (9 January 2018). "Lars Ohly lämnar vänsterpartiet". Dagens Nyheter (in Swedish). Retrieved 9 January 2018.
  7. ^ Grimlund, Lars (19 February 2004). "Mötte du Nacka, Ohly?" (in Swedish). Dagens Nyheter. Archived from the original on 1 October 2007. Retrieved 3 August 2007.
  8. ^ Grimlund, Lars; Stenberg, Ewa (20 February 2004). "Ohly: "Jag måste ha stått vid sidan av"" (in Swedish). Dagens Nyheter. Archived from the original on 1 October 2007. Retrieved 3 August 2007.
  9. ^ Bagge, Peter (5 October 2004). "Lars Ohlys syn på demokrati" (in Swedish). Uppdrag granskning. Archived from the original on 25 August 2010. Retrieved 3 August 2007.
  10. ^ "Vad har Ohly sagt? Här är citaten" (in Swedish). Uppdrag granskning. 5 October 2004. Archived from the original on 8 February 2005. Retrieved 3 August 2007.
  11. ^ "Lars Ohly slutar kalla sig kommunist" (in Swedish). Sveriges Television. 30 October 2005. Archived from the original on 30 September 2007. Retrieved 3 August 2007.
  12. Ekot. Archived from the original
    on 30 September 2007. Retrieved 3 August 2007.
  13. ^ "Här ger Ohly fingret åt högerdebattören" (in Swedish). Ekonominyheterna. 18 September 2006. Archived from the original on 24 December 2007. Retrieved 3 August 2007.
  14. ^ Kemilä, Alexander; Julander, Oscar (18 September 2006). "Expressens krönikör fick fingret - av Ohly" (in Swedish). Expressen. Retrieved 3 August 2007.
  15. ^ Karlsson, Karl-Johan (5 March 2010). "Ohly satte sin son i privatskola" (in Swedish). Expressen. Retrieved 26 September 2010.
  16. ^ Eriksson, Göran (10 January 2010). "Allt står på spel i ödesvalet 2010" (in Swedish). Svenska Dagbladet. Retrieved 26 September 2010.
  17. ^ Svensson, Niklas; Thunborg, Peter (4 February 2010). "Lars Ohly sålde lägenheten - inte nöjd med vinsten" (in Swedish). Expressen. Retrieved 26 September 2010.
  18. ^ Karlsson, Karl-Johan; Sjöshult, Fredrik (16 September 2010). "Här slirar Ohly med sanningen igen" (in Swedish). Expressen. Retrieved 26 September 2010.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Lars Ohly.
Party political offices
Preceded by Party secretary of the Left Party
1994–2000 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Party chairman of the Left Party
2004–2012 		Succeeded by