Although this paper is titled Ikea Fascism: Metapedia and the Internationalization of Swedish Generic Fascism, it’s clear just by reading this that the relation between Ikea and Metapedia is at best tangential. Nevertheless, what it does share about Swedish neofascism is worth quoting:

One of the Swedish teenage ultra‐nationalists during the war was Ikea founder and later legendary Swedish businessman Ingvar Kamprad. In 1942 he came in touch with the most well‐known Swedish fascist leader, Per Engdahl (1909–1994). The intellectual Engdahl became organized as early as 1928 in Sveriges Fascistiska Kamporganization [Sweden’s Fascist Combat Organization].

During the war, he founded an intellectual fascist organization which in the post‐war era lived on by the name of Nysvenska Rörelsen [NSR; The New‐Swedish Movement]. Engdahl after the war tried to distance himself from [the Third Reich], claiming in 1945 that his fascism during the war really was ‘a defence for all of Europe’ but ‘this created violent opposition in the dominant Swedish press, and our movement was therefore labelled as Nazism.’

The internationalization of NSR had already begun in 1945, when Engdahl started an unemployment agency in the city of Malmö for Danish and Norwegian fascists and Nazis fleeing their countries. In 1947 NSR took an additional step, initiating a conference for Nordic fascists, while European fascist leaders were starting to take notice of this new movement, and invitations regarding co‐operation began pouring in.

At a NSR‐conference in May 1950 there were delegates from France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark and Norway. That same year in Italy, the Movimento Sociale Italiano [MSI; Italian Social Movement] organized a pan‐European conference in Rome, connecting Engdahl’s efforts to even more nationalist parties.

In 1951 Engdahl founded the Europäische Soziale Bewegung (ESB) commonly known as Malmörörelsen [The Malmö Movement], by hosting a conference with the title ‘For Europe – against Communism.’ Notable participants were the British fascist Oswald Mosley, the French intellectual Maurice Bardèche, MSI‐leader Arturo Michelini and the ex‐leader of Hitler‐Jugend’s propaganda department, Karl‐Heinz Priester.

The movement focused on abandoning racist ideology and instead concentrated on anti‐communism. This decision proved controversial. The French and Swiss delegates insisted upon an ‘active politics of race’ and anti‐Semitism, which Engdahl opposed.

In 1953 the ESB‐program was approved, stating that every member organization (representing Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, West Germany, Italy, France, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Austria, Hungary and Spain) should institute a national and social revolution, since democracy had failed to make Europe a third factor in world politics. In the 1950s Engdahl was relatively successful, both on the European level and on the national Swedish level.

During this time, the relationship between Engdahl and Ikea’s Ingvar Kamprad deepened. Kamprad founded his company in 1943. Though the beginnings were humble, Ikea soon grew and in 1947 Kamprad started selling furniture, opening his first department store in 1958.

When he married in the 1950s, Per Engdahl was invited as the guest of honour – the fascist leader also gave a speech at the wedding dinner, before which Kamprad stated that he was proud to be a member of Engdahl’s political movement. When journalists put the spotlight on Kamprad’s fascist past in the 1990s, he made a public apology.

But interestingly enough, Kamprad at the same time tries to defend Engdahl’s [neo]fascist movement, with the argument that it was not Hitler’s [Fascism]: ‘The truth is that one should call me a fascist. […] There were many views in that movement. There were people who were as much anti‐Nazis as you and me.’ He also maintains that Engdahl was ‘a great man.’

(Emphasis added.)

Related:

Ikea founder Ingvar Kamprad involved in new Nazi claims

Ikea founder Ingvar Kamprad’s Nazi ties ‘went deeper’