| Richard Jomshof | |
| Honorific-Suffix: | SD |
| Office: | Secretary-General of the Sweden Democrats |
| Leader: | Jimmie Åkesson |
| Term Start: | 11 January 2015 |
| Term End: | 17 October 2022 |
| Predecessor: | Björn Söder |
| Successor: | Mattias Bäckström Johansson |
| Office1: | Member of the Riksdag |
| Term Start1: | 11 September 2014 |
| Term Start2: | 19 September 2010 |
| Term End2: | 11 September 2014 |
| Constituency2: | Gävleborg County |
| Birth Name: | Richard Johannes Lohikoski |
| Birth Date: | 6 July 1969 |
| Birth Place: | Helsingborg, Sweden |
| Party: | Sweden Democrats |
| Spouse: | Linda Jomshof |
| Alma Mater: | Malmö University Lund University |
Richard Johannes Jomshof, Lohikoski, (born 6 July 1969 in Helsingborg) is a Swedish politician affiliated with the Sweden Democrats (SD) party and former pop musician. He served as Secretary-General of the Sweden Democrats from 2015 to 2022 and has been a Member of the Riksdag since September 2010. In 2022, he was appointed as chairman of the Justice Committee in the Riksdag.
Jomshof was born in 1969 in Helsingborg to a Swedish mother and a Finnish father.[1] He studied history and social studies at Malmö University before attending the university's affiliated teacher training college and subsequently worked as a primary school and then a secondary school teacher.[2] As a teacher, Jomshof was according to himself dismissed from two jobs for being part of Sweden Democrats.[3]
After his teaching studies, Jomshof became a musician, co-founding and playing in the Swedish synthpop band Elegant Machinery. In a 2013 interview with Side-Line, he spoke about his involvement in SD and what effect it has had on Elegant Machinery.[4] When asked what he thought had improved in Sweden the latest 20 years, he said it was the music.[5]
Jomshof's original political background was in the Moderate Youth League and he had also previously voted for the Swedish Social Democratic Party. He first became active in SD in the late 1990s. During the 2009 European Parliament election, Jomshof stood on the SD's list but was not elected.[2] Since the 2010 Swedish general election, Jomshof represents the Gävleborg constituency in the Riksdag.[6] He was also responsible for drafting the SD's education policies in the party manifesto ahead of the 2010 election.[2]
In 2012, he succeeded Kent Ekeroth as SD's spokesman on legal affairs, and in January 2015 he was elected as party secretary, succeeding Björn Söder.[7] In 2021, he was appointed the SD's spokesman on education policy.[8]
Following the 2022 Swedish general election, Jomshof was appointed chairman of the Justice Committee in the Riksdag.[9]
Jomshof has served as the SD's policy spokesman on school policies. He has called for teachers to take on non-pedagogical tasks while increasing the number of nurses and mental health councilors working with schools. He also believes Swedish should remain the official language within the state school system. Jomshof also said that he previously was a political liberal and that much of his current beliefs and decision to join the SD were formed after working in Swedish schools in the late 1980s and stating that he was already witnessing issues surrounding discipline, language and cultural segregation between immigrants and Swedes.[2] Jomshof has called for a more restrictive immigration policy.
He was involved in a violent polemic against MP Daniel Riazat (Left Party) in 2024. He asserted that the latter, of Iranian origin, should leave Sweden, calling him "a disgrace to the Iranian diaspora". He then claims that Daniel Riazat refuses to shake hands with women in Parliament, insinuating that this is for religious reasons, although a video shows the opposite. Moreover, Riazat is not a Muslim. On social networks, his comments led to a wave of racist insults against Daniel Riazat.[10]
Jomshof is a supporter of Israeli politics and has visited the country and posed with the Israeli flag on several occasions.[11] [12] [13] On 31 October 2023, he wished IDF "good hunting" in its war against Hamas, which sparked criticism in Swedish media.[14] [15]
Jomshof has received media attention for his statements about Islam and Muslim immigration to Sweden and has been accused of Islamophobia by political opponents, but has claimed he is not opposed to immigrants.[16] [17] [18] [19]
During a speech in the Swedish parliament in 2013, Jomshof said that Islam, unlike Christianity, is immoral and violent. During the same speech he compared Islam to Nazism and claimed that they both have no place in Western society.[20]
In 2021, Jomshof appeared on a Swedish TV show Sverige möts, where he allegedly called Islam a "disgusting religion." His remarks drew media attention and he was subsequently criticized by Moderate leader Ulf Kristersson and former Swedish prime minister Stefan Löfven. Jomshof later stated that his comments had been misinterpreted and taken out of context.[21]
In 2023, in response to a call by the Muslim Association of Sweden for dialogue over the 2023 Quran burnings in Sweden, Jomshof controversially tweeted that there was a need for dialogue over "how we democratise the Muslim world," calling Islam an "antidemocratic, violence-promoting and misogynistic religion/ideology" and calling Muhammad a "warlord, mass-murderer, slave trader and bandit."[22]
In January 2024, Jomshof ignited controversy in Sweden by proposing the prohibition of the Islamic star and crescent.[23] [24] He drew parallels to the ban on the Swastika, claiming that both symbols represent something dangerous.[25] [26]