V politician questions defamation complaint over Liberal leader’s list

Left Party MP Ilona Szatmari Waldau has reacted strongly to a list that Liberal Party leader Simona Mohamsson brought to a TV4 party leaders’ debate, SVT reported. The list names Left Party politicians whom Mohamsson says have spread antisemitism.

“I think the Swedish people need to see this list and ask themselves: Is this the party they want to give real influence over the government on Monday?” Mohamsson said.

Szatmari Waldau, whose name tops the list, said she had never thought or made an antisemitic statement. She said she had instead spoken in Parliament and at demonstrations about the importance of criticising Israel without using antisemitic language.

“It is unfortunate that Simona Mohamsson is now using the vulnerability of Jews as a political weapon,” Szatmari Waldau wrote on Instagram. She also said she has Jewish roots and questioned whether she could report Mohamsson for defamation.

Szatmari Waldau previously sent an open letter to a Palestinian prisoner who had been convicted of ordering terror bombings that killed several people in Israel.

In a text message to SVT, she said both she and the Left Party had acknowledged that sending the letter was a mistake.

“The important thing is to combat antisemitism and the vulnerability of Swedish Jews, not to label one another incorrectly,” she wrote.