Melodifestivalen star Sarah Dawn Finer and Eurovision veteran Eric Saade have spoken out against the hardline immigration policies proposed by the Swedish Democrats (SD).
The SD, a far right political party, have put forward a motion for all immigrants and foreign residents to register with authorities.
Björn Söder, a former Secretary of the party, has been a vocal proponent of the controversial policies. In an interview with Swedish paper Dagens Nyheter, he suggested use of a repatriation grant to pay immigrants to leave the country and reiterated his belief that nobody can have two identities. (He obviously hasn’t met Congolese-Ukrainian Eurovision star Gaitana. Or Estonia’s Russian-speaking Eurovision star Tanja. Or Junior Eurovision star Lerika, who works it in Moldova and then works it in Russia. Don’t hate…)
What do Eric Saade and Sarah Dawn Finer have to say?
The Melodifestivalen signers are not fans of the SD policies or Söder. Saade posted a screenshot of this Aftonbladet article, through his official Instagram account and captioned it, “Peace&Love…#Please”.
Sarah Dawn Finer went one step further, posting an extended status update through her Facebook page to her 54,000 FB fans.
She urged her fans to use their votes and block Björn Söder and the Swedish Democrats from gaining power: “We as a people must not discriminate against anyone, regardless of background, religion, color, gender or sexual orientation.”
Söder has a history of controversial statements connected to Eurovision. He was vocally critical of Loreen’s victory at the Eurovision Song Contest 2012 in Baku.
He also opposed the Swedish bid to host the contest.
Söder criticised Eurovision for not being too multicultural but conversely stated that Sweden should not host the Eurovision Song Contest 2013 because the contest wasn’t multicultural enough.
Söder has since backtracked on comments and claims to have been taken out of context. Regardless he has received criticism from within his own party, with Richard Jomshof slamming his comments as “extremely fuzzy”.
At Team Wiwi, we’re glad Sarah and Eric are strong enough to speak out for what they believe in. The appeals for peace, love and, above all, tolerance, are values all Eurovision fans should uphold. Our thoughts are with Sweden.
Sources: Aftonbladet, Dagens Nyheter
Here’s a reprise of Eric’s charity single ‘Du Är Aldrig Ensam’:
One of the reasons why I have always admired Sweden and other Scandinavian countries is that I think the people there have always seemed are very educated, open-minded and mature – unlike many people in my region (Balkans – but we are changing too!). Swedish Democrats are obviously populists who need to inflate the Swedish social problems in order to get credibility. Sweden has certain social problems, but they are not nearly as dramatic as this party is trying to present. The ONLY thing they’re focused on is spreading of hatred – people like them (and, trust me, as coming… Read more »
@LucyEAPercy
I agree with you. I really don’t like UKIP but I would vote for them just so we won’t be part of the EU.
@ brett
We are sorry for offending this amazing party.
#feeling#sucks
the party is called sweden democrats not swedish democrats.
The SD are so un-swedish. Sweden is world renowned for the cultural coheresion, and inclusion. Thank God big names are fighting this head on. I wish that celebrities in the UK would do the same against UKIP. Because of their rise, I’m planning to move to (ironically) Sweden in 2018, after my degree, because I am physically scared of the Far Right. However, yes there is an immigration problem in certain countries. But every one has got it wrong. Linking immigration with race, as UKIP, Front National and others are doing, is inherently wrong and is causing more and more… Read more »
Haha he’s just so funny.
He needs to die.
Great to see Erik and Sarah speaking out on this guy’s nonsense.
Tack Sarah! We need more people to come forward to put a stop to these hypocritical politicians of “far right” that one day one thing, the next day they’ll state it was all taken out of context. Yeah right …been there, seen that! Get a grip …
Wow, more countries need celebrities speaking out against these parties, as a british person im scared that UKIP will get into power here. I mean, we have serious immigration problems that need to be sorted out somehow, but not the way they are saying.