As A Political Party
In the General Electoral Union-SNU split, three conservative MPs sided with SNUoF. These were Alf Meyerhöffer, Gösta Jacobsson and John Gustafsson. These three parliamentarians formed their own independent faction within parliament, dubbed Nationella Gruppen (the "National Faction"). None of them would see re-election in 1936 (see below).
In 1934 the small pro-German National Labour League (Nationella Arbetsförbundet) merged into SNUoF.
The group contested the 1935 municipal elections, gaining 70 seats throughout the country. The same year the name was changed to National League of Sweden (Sveriges Nationella Förbund). Anti-semitism became a more prominent feature of the party. At this time its membership was around 40 000.
The party contested the 1936 general elections. With a mere 31 015 votes, the SNL did not win any seat in the parliament. The following year, on October 10, 1937 the National League New Sweden of Per Engdahl merged into SNF. Engdahl was allotted the position of vice-chairman of SNF.
At its national conference in 1938 SNF officially adopted a party programme, describing themselves as Corporative, New Swedish, Radical, Nationalist and Socialist. In the same year the Swedish Front of Bengt-Olov Ljungberg was attached to the party. Under Ljungberg's direction, the youth wing National Youth was built up in 1939.
In 1941 Engdahl broke away from SNF. Along with him left many prominent party members, like Ljungberg, and a major section of the youth wing. Engdahl and his followers formed Swedish Opposition. The same year SNF started received financial support from the German state to publish the newspaper Dagsposten from Stockholm. Along with the Socialist Party (a former Communist party also receiving financial aid from Nazi Germany) it was the latest pro-Nazi party to hold elective officials in Sweden.
Read more about this topic: National League Of Sweden
Famous quotes containing the words political and/or party:
“Reason is a faculty far larger than mere objective force. When either the political or the scientific discourse announces itself as the voice of reason, it is playing God, and should be spanked and stood in the corner.”
—Ursula K. Le Guin (b. 1929)
“In making the great experiment of governing people by consent rather than by coercion, it is not sufficient that the party in power should have a majority. It is just as necessary that the party in power should never outrage the minority.”
—Walter Lippmann (1889–1974)