The extreme right swedish party The Sweden Democrats (SD) do not intend to close the social media accounts they have used to discredit the opposition, as well as the coalition it supports, its leadership announced today, following a crisis meeting of the majority parties.

Furthermore, the far-right party has no intention of apologizing, party secretary Matthias Bäckström Johansson told reporters after the meeting ended.

TV4’s investigative show Kalla fakta revealed on Tuesday the existence of 23 anonymous social media accounts controlled by the far-right party’s communications service during a months-long hidden camera investigation.

The investigation shows that the accounts were used, among other things, to discredit Magdalena Andersson, head of the opposition, but also other parties in the governing coalition supported by the Sweden Democrats.

After the first revelations of this investigation, the first episode of which was broadcast on May 7, there was a barrage of criticism against Prime Minister Ulf Kristerson and his government, who are accused of not wanting to take concrete steps to bring the far-right party to account. of.

The secretaries of the parties participating in the governing coalition spent the afternoon in the office in the parliament of the Moderate party, the Swedish prime minister, to discuss the revelations of the show Kalla Fakta.

“We have neither the ambition nor the goal” to close the relevant accounts, the far-right party leader said after that meeting.

With this response, he rejected the request of the Liberal party, a member of the coalition, which requested the closure of these accounts.

“We are under no obligation to apologize for the way we work,” added Beckstrom Johansson, who simply agreed to delete 45 posts that were inconsistent with the October 2022 coalition agreement with the Moderates. , the Christian Democrats and the Liberals.

As part of this agreement, the coalition parties pledged to “contribute to the maintenance of a good climate of cooperation and behave with dignity by speaking respectfully of the main representatives” of the other parties.

Far-right party leader Jimmy Akesson on Tuesday called the TV4 investigation an “inside influence operation”, in a YouTube video.

Less than a month before the European elections, the Sweden Democrats are credited with almost 19% in the intention to vote opinion polls, behind the Social Democrats, the main opposition party.