Nobel party bars Sweden Democrat leader
There will be no Nobel Prize party this year for Jimmie Åkesson, the leader of the immigration critical political party the Sweden Democrats.
It is the second year in a row that all party leaders apart from Åkesson are invited to dine and dance with the Nobel laureates at Stockholm's city hall on December 10.
The Nobel Committee explains its decision by referencing industrial magnaet Alfred Nobel's last will and testament. There he sets out that nationality and origin should be considered irrelevant, a humanist principle that the Nobel Committee must honour.
Åkesson has previously said to media that his exlusion is due to a misinterpretation of the Sweden Democrats' political aims.
His party passed the 4 percent vote barrier to enter the Swedish parliament for the first time last year. Other nationalist or anti-immigration parties now have political representation in many of Sweden's neighbours. This includes Norway, Denmark and Finland.
