Mattias Karlsson: Lost Sense of Oikos

Much of the Western right is having to rethink its 1980s-era economism, but perhaps not for the reasons suggested by Mathias Karlson’s byword since leaving the Swedish Democrats’ parliamentary chairmanship over a year ago. Oikos, ancient Greek for "home" and root etymology of "economics", is Karlsson’s new pet project these days—a brand new conservative home for challenging the institutional monopoly of social-democracy on Swedish life, politics and imagination. Mattias is no longer your quick-fire politician, mind you, if he ever was one. Though he remains an MP in Sweden’s Riksdag, his responsibility vis-à-vis his fellow Swedes has shifted from the political realm of society to the moral-cultural one. In this interview with Jorge González-Gallarza, Karlsson opens up about how his new think-tank will endeavour to alter the country that his fellow Swedes inherit in 20 to 30 years.