I am looking for a new political home

Robert Weil on the announcment that liberal politician Birgitta Ohlsson is returning to Swedish politics after 8 years in Washington DC.

“I have been looking for a new political home ever since the Liberals first opened the door to a collaboration with the Sweden Democrats.

Per Ahlmark argued that liberals have a very special role when democracy is under threat – to serve as an ever-watchful alarm and to stand firmly against all authoritarian tendencies. Yet liberal parties across the western world are at a loss in the face of the increasingly urgent threat to the free society.

That is why Birgitta Ohlsson’s return to politics is important. Birgitta has never wavered – in the spirit of Per Ahlmark, she has consistently stood up for the principles of liberal democracy and worked to strengthen and defend the open society, both within and outside party politics.

I believe that Birgitta’s experience from her role as head of the National Democratic Institute in Washington will be particularly valuable in Swedish politics. From a front-row seat, she has witnessed how the Republican Party has been hijacked by forces it initially believed it could control. We must, at all costs, prevent the same development in Sweden.

I support Birgitta.”

– Robert Weil, chairman of Proventus and the Per Ahlmark Foundation