Gustav Kasselstrand

Gustav Mattias Anton Kasselstrand (born 27 June 1987)[2] is a Swedish politician, who is co-founder and chairman of the party Alternative for Sweden.

Gustav Kasselstrand
Gustav Kasselstrand in August 2018
Leader of Alternative for Sweden
Assumed office
5 March 2018
Chairman of the Sweden Democratic Youth
In office
7 February 2011 – 12 September 2015
Preceded byWilliam Petzäll
Succeeded byJessica Ohlson
Personal details
Born
Gustav Mattias Anton Kasselstrand

(1987-06-27) 27 June 1987
Valdemarsvik, Östergötland, Sweden
Political partyAlternative for Sweden[1]
Sweden Democrats (until 2015)
EducationAalto University
Nanyang Business School
University of Gothenburg
Military service
Allegiance Sweden
Branch/serviceHome Guard
Years of service2012–
UnitLife Guards

Early life

Kasselstrand was born and grew up in Valdemarsvik, Östergötland. He studied economics and German at the business school at the University of Gothenburg.

Sweden Democrats

Kasselstrand joined the Sweden Democrats while at university. He was chairman of the Sweden Democratic Youth (SDU) from 2011 to 2015 and political secretary for the Sweden Democrats in the Swedish Riksdag from 1 January 2011 to 21 November 2012.[3]

He became acting chairman of the youth league upon the timeout of William Petzäll due to his alcohol problems in February 2011. He was elected ordinary chairman on 10 September 2011,[4] and re-elected three consecutive times on 1 September 2012,[5] 7 September 2013[6] and 29 November 2014. He resigned on the annual congress on 12 September 2015, having served as the chairman for nearly five years.

In April 2015, Kasselstrand was expelled as a member from the mother party, the Sweden Democrats.[7] The exclusion came after Kasselstrand's colleague and vice chairman of SDU, William Hahne, had been voted the chairman of the Sweden Democrat's Stockholm district, against the will of the mother party leadership. Kasselstrand called the action "undemocratic" and meant that it was all a way for the party leadership to secure their own power and positions, and that they feared the upcoming generation in the youth league to gain more influence. Kasselstrand continued on his position as the chairman for SDU until the ordinary congress in September the same year.

After Kasselstrand resigned on the congress in September 2015, Jessica Ohlson won the election as the new chairman against Tobias Andersson, who had major support from the party leaders in his candidacy. Ohlson was considered to be one of Kasselstrand's closest collaborators, having served as the youth league secretary during Kasselstrand's chairmanship. Only hours after Ohlson was elected as the new chairperson, the Sweden Democrats announced that they broke all ties between the party and the youth league to form a new youth league.[8] Meanwhile, Ohlson declared that she continue to lead the original youth league as an independent youth league. Kasselstrand and Ohlson publicly declared that they "will consider all opportunities" in the future regarding the possibility to form a new political party. Kasselstrand also called for party leader Jimmie Åkesson to resign from his position.

Alternative for Sweden

In January 2016, Kasselstrand announced that he had launched a podcast called "Den kokta grodan" (The boiled frog) with Erik Berglund. The podcast ran until January 2019.

In March 2018, Kasselstrand and William Hahne launched a new nationalist political party called Alternative for Sweden, which they had registered in December 2017.

gollark: Yes, the server heavserver is a community heavserver.
gollark: We're a community server!
gollark: Do not worry. There is no need to fear. All bots are safely contained within quarantine zones.
gollark: heavserver #meta-advocacy
gollark: Practice doing things under time pressure?

References
  1. Radio, Sveriges. "Uteslutna sverigedemokrater bildar nytt parti - Nyheter (Ekot)". sverigesradio.se.
  2. Ratsit.se: Gustav Kasselstrand Archived 2015-05-18 at the Wayback Machine
  3. "Kasselstrand sparkas från riksdagskansliet - Nyheter - Expressen (Kasselstrand is fired from the parliamentary offices)".
  4. 2011-09-10: SDU elects Kasselstrand as new chairman! Archived 2013-03-17 at the Wayback Machine
  5. "Kasselstrand klarade kuppen - omvald i SDU - Nyheter - Expressen (Kasselstrand survived the coup - re-elected chairman of SDU)".
  6. "Kasselstrand omvald SDU-ordförande (Kasselstrand re-elected for a third term)". 8 September 2013.
  7. Kasselstrand expelled (Swedish) 7 April 2015
  8. Kasselstrand demands party leader Jimmie Åkessons resignation 12 September 2015
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.