Moderate politician called Pekgul ‘clapping Turk’

Böhlmark is one of the Moderates’ political secretaries, and the person in charge of the Moderate Party’s official Twitter account.

“We’re now starting a discussion about what his role should be in future,” said the party’s press secretary Jesper Wigardt to the TT news agency.

The incident occurred during an online discussion with party colleagues, on Böhlmark’s private Twitter account. He wrote “clapping Turk” in reference to the Social Democrat Nalin Pekgul.

The response was immediate, and newspaper Dagens Nyheter reported that several people immediately demanded his resignation. Böhlmark himself removed the comment, and wrote an apology on Twitter.

“Noted that people didn’t like a tweet. Removed it and apologize,” and “All representatives for Moderates acting in social media are faces outward. Understand outrage and apologize.”

“It was inappropriately written. He didn’t mean anything offensive by it, but it went very wrong,” said Wigardt.

Nalin Pekgul has previously been called “clapping Turk” in racist discussions on the Internet, and the derogatory term originated from a video of her applauding former Social Democratic party leader Mona Sahlin in 2010.