Debts, welfare benefit scandals, a disputed citizenship and an election campaign marked by suspected irregularities – yet Mohamed Abdukadir Ali’s political journey ended in the Swedish Riksdag. If SVT wants to revive its Swedish Person of the Year award, it need not look far for a candidate.
2026 is the year in which we have a unique opportunity to reinstate the honorary title of Swedish Person of the Year, and the winner is obvious: Mohamed Abdukadir Ali, the clan-voted preference-vote rocket from Little Mogadishu.
Swedish Person of the Year was a title that SVT awarded between 1984 and 1988 to the person in Sweden considered to have been at the centre of that year’s news coverage. In 1989, however, it turned out that the person who best met the criteria for the title was Christer Pettersson, who had been charged with the murder of Olof Palme, whereupon they simply decided to stop naming a Swedish Person of the Year.
But now SVT has been handed a golden opportunity to revive the tradition. Six weeks after the Swedish election, the nation can conclude that, while we still do not have a government, we have gained something else: a Somali welfare fraudster – and apparently a notorious liar – in the Riksdag.
On closer examination, Mohamed Abdukadir Ali has managed to achieve everything the average Swede could dream of: he has run up debts in the hundreds of thousands of kronor, and whether it has involved repaying loans, wrongly paid benefits, fines or child maintenance for his own child, Ali’s modus operandi has always been the same: make grand promises, but deliver very little.
Another constant has been the total absence of consequences.
Authorities, companies and private individuals have all been left holding the bag. Despite this repeated behaviour, a growing mountain of debt and links to gang crime, Ali was allowed to remain in Sweden. But he did suffer a minor setback when he was denied Swedish citizenship because the Swedish Migration Agency considered that he did not meet the requirements for an honourable way of life. A decision that might seem fairly obvious.
However, the fact that Ali appears to have travelled to Somalia over the years for several meetings with the country’s regime (which he claims to have fled) was conveniently overlooked. The guy has to be allowed to enjoy a little sun and swimming, after all!
But despite not being a citizen, Ali then managed the remarkable feat of being granted debt relief – something most indebted Swedes can only dream of – and without any requirement to repay the money. In other words, Swedish taxpayers were left to pick up the bill for Ali’s shopping bonanza.
One might think that would be enough. In a normal country, Mohamed Ali would have been picked up by the police and put on the first available flight to Mogadishu.
But Sweden is not a normal country.
Ali’s next stunt was to write to the Swedish Migration Agency and claim that all his debts had been paid (something the agency’s caseworkers either did not bother to check or simply did not care about anyway), that he was in urgent need of citizenship because he was the CEO of an important company (which turned out not to exist at all), and that he was planning major business deals in Somalia together with a female Moderate Party politician (who has now gone public and explained that she feels deceived after contributing substantial sums of money to Ali).
So what did the Swedish Migration Agency do? Well, officials at this agency, too, chose to break their own guidelines to help poor Ali – he was exempted from the two-year waiting period that is supposed to elapse between the completion of debt relief proceedings and eligibility for citizenship. And voilà! In February this year, Muhamed Abdukardir became a Swedish citizen. A citizenship he conned his way into obtaining, and one that cannot be revoked.
Congratulations, Sweden.
But that was not the end of it. Ali knocked on the door of the Left Party in Borlänge, where they were quick to welcome him. A pitch-black Somali immigrant! For the Borlänge communists, Ali was a blessing – by placing him on the actual parliamentary candidate list, they could prove themselves to be Good, Nice Anti-Racists (but just to be on the safe side, they placed him ninth; his role was to serve as an anti-racist hostage, but he was certainly not supposed to make it into the Riksdag).
However, they had reckoned neither with Ali’s well-established skills in fraud and deception nor with the fact that he is Somali – and therefore has access to a large network of loyal compatriots, in a city commonly known as “Little Mogadishu”. Ali was quick to recognise the opportunities, so he launched a private election campaign using material that had been altered to make it look as though it came from the Left Party.
Muhamed Abdukardir Ali ran his own election campaign. The headline reads “On Your Side”. Photo: Facebook screenshot
If any of these compatriots were hesitant about voting for Ali, the problem was quickly resolved by handing out pre-marked ballot papers, free pizzas, cash payments and lifts to the polling station. To make sure things were done properly.
When the votes were counted, it turned out that Mohamed Ali had not only grabbed himself a citizenship, but also a seat in the Swedish Riksdag. And Sweden had acquired a new word: “preference-vote rocket”. Alhamdulillah!
Since 14 September, Ali’s face has consequently appeared in almost every news broadcast and publication. Every day. Scandal after scandal has been exposed, and what we are witnessing is a farce so absurd that it could be taken as proof that we are living in a simulation (controlled by an intelligence with exceptionally poor humour).
The same question keeps coming back: How in the name of all that is holy the f*** has any of this – any of it at all – even been possible?
The Left Party claims to have googled “Mohamed Ali”, but blames the fact that so many people in Sweden have that name for not knowing which Muhamed Ali they were catapulting straight into the heart of the nation…
Criminal investigations into Ali and his miraculous political meteoric rise are now under way. But none of the above matters. Since Ali intends to cling to his seat in the Riksdag, he will remain where he is. He can be removed neither from the Riksdag nor from his citizenship. Regardless.
Mohamed Ali began his parliamentary career by going on sick leave. When journalists – after much difficulty – finally managed to interview Ali when he showed up at his new workplace, the Left Party’s press secretary cut the interview short when the questions became too sensitive. The next day, he went on sick leave again.
What can one say? I usually end up quoting the comic book character Arne Anka: “Sometimes you wonder whether you’re living in a country or in a joke…”
You can think whatever you like about Muhamed Ali, but he has managed to exploit Swedish society in ways most Swedes can only dream of. He appears to have led an entirely dishonest life in Sweden. He has lied, cheated and refused to pay his way – for 23 years. The only thing he has failed to do is learn to speak comprehensible Swedish.
For this, he has been rewarded with Swedish citizenship, a seat in the Riksdag, a home in central Stockholm and a modest allowance of 81,400 kronor a month. A position from which he is now on sick leave. Again. But the money will of course continue to land in his bank account, and the Left Party has also granted him an exemption from the party tax paid by all its other members of the Riksdag.
I will leave it unsaid whether all this says more about Ali or about Sweden. But I will end with a tip for SVT: bring back Swedish Person of the Year – the winner is already a foregone conclusion.
