Patrik Brinkmann

Jan Patrick William Brinkmann of Druffel-Egloffstein (born 1966 in Motala), with nickname “Tissa” is a Swedish-German businessman, entrepreneur and patron with interests mainly in the mining industry but also real estate. Already in the eighties Brinkmann developed a passionate interest in cultural-political and social affairs – an interest which has continued to shape him until today.

Patrik Brinkmann in Berlin

Brinkmann has funded political projects within the political right and held senior positions in conservative and nationalist organizations.

Nevertheless Brinkmann has a broad political network covering everything from social liberal to conservative and nationalist parties.

Brinkmann has changed parts of his former views and opinion towards a more pro-islam stance, stating that "The muslim view on families supports a positive demographic development and is good as counterpoint to all the single men in the Sweden Democrats party". Brinkmann attributes his changed views to "having gotten to know some immigrants of the muslim faith".[1] Brinkmann's view of islam actually changed over the last 5–6 years.[2]

Brinkmann was in the late 1980s and 1990s active mainly in real estate investment, during the late 1990s Brinkmann added to his attention natural resources, mainly metal exploration and mining but was also investing in the oil sector, Brinkmann has been part-owner in several companies over the years.

He has worked with and for a number of European and Asian parties, including Freedom Party of Austria FPÖ, Vlaams Belang Belgium, United Kingdom Independence Party UKIP,[3] Islamists critical Pro-Bewegung Germany, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) India and United National Party (UNP) in Sri Lanka, both directly and through patron activities in support of conservative and nationalist organisations.[4]

He has sought a dialogue between European and Israeli right-wing parties and in this connection made a visit to the Knesset together with Kent Ekeroth of the Sweden Democrats and Mike Huckabee, ex-governor of Arkansas.[5] Relations with Israel is a controversial issue that divides the European right,[6][7] which is indicated by the reactions to this in both Israel and Europe.[8]

Brinkmann has also been organising conferences and collaborations between academics, writers and political activists within European right through his organisation the Continent Europe Foundation. Among others, Mikhail Gorbachevs former adviser Professor Wjatscheslaw Iwanowitsch Daschitschew played an important role here,[9] and Brinkmann has long advocated a rapprochement between Europe and Russia.[10][11]

Since 2011, Brinkmann is no longer politically active and instead focusses on his business engagements, which according to him suffered from the attention surrounding his political activities.[12] When former Minister Sven-Otto Littorin joined the Board of Wiking Minerals in 2012 this caused a lot of stir in the Swedish press,[13] which ended with Littorin reporting Expressen to the Press Ombudsman.[14]

In July 2014 Brinkmann announced, through a letter to the editor, that he plans live part of his time in Hungary from now on. Discussing the reasons for his move, he states that he considers the Hungarian investment climate promising in the long term and that he appreciates the culturally conservative social climate, as well as the national conservative government. In the same article Brinkmann also praised Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orbán.[15]

Brinkmann has german family roots but he grew up in Sweden. In his younger years Brinkmann was involved in the Pentecostal movement, doing humanitarian work in Sri Lanka among other places, but he has later come to approach the Orthodox Church. He is considered by many to have a Buddhist philosophy and he has a close relationship with Buddhist traditions and Sri Lanka for more than three decades. Since 2007 he is living mainly in Berlin, and since 2014 he shares his time between Berlin and Budapest. He is married and has six children.[16]

References
  1. "Här poserar han med kända nazistledaren". Aftonbladet. Retrieved 2016-10-29.
  3. "Patrik Brinkmann zu politischen Gesprächen im Britischen Oberhaus" Archived 2014-07-15 at the Wayback Machine PRO-NRW (In German)
  4. "Portrait Patrik Brinkmann: Mazen von Rechtsaußen." Archived 2014-06-05 at the Wayback Machine Esszett, July 9, 2011 (in German)
  5. "Europäische Rechtsparteien bauen Contact nach Israel aus" Junge Freiheit, February 7, 2011 (in German)
  6. "Israelisk minister mötte nationalister i Belgien." Expo, 7 juni 2011 (In Swedish)
  7. "Patrik Brinkmann zu Besuch in Österreich und Israel" Archived 2014-07-14 at the Wayback Machine PRO NRW (in German)
  8. " Israeli FM complains about Deputy Minister's meetings with extreme-rightists in Europe " Archived 2014-07-14 at the Wayback Machine Euro-Asian Jewish Congress, July 13, 2011
  9. "Wjatscheslaw Ivanovich Daschitschew" German Wikipedia (In German)
  10. "Europa ohne Russland ist undenkbar" Archived 2014-07-14 at the Wayback Machine Press release, August 5, 2009 (in German)
  11. "Die deutsch-russische Schicksalsgemeinschaft" Press Release, August 6, 2009 (in German)
  12. "Brinkmann lämnar politiken. " Expo, August 23, 2011 (In Swedish)
  13. "Littorin värvas av känd högerextremist" Expressen, 21 juni 2012 (In Swedish)
  14. "Littorin: 'Nu är det nog'" Dagens Media, 27 juni 2012 (In Swedish)
  15. "Berlin to Budapest'" Daily News Hungary, July 22, 2014
  16. "Fears of Neo-Nazi center in Berlin" Spiegel Online, July 12, 2008
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.