It’s early evening. I spot Asham Agha Nadeem just outside Nørrebro’s Runddel metro station. He is stuck on a call, but politely acknowledges me.
When he’s done, he takes me to a charming local coffee shop in Nørrebro with interior decorations inspired by South Asia.
During the walk, it’s clear he lives in a fairly constant state of dealing with press enquiries, receiving several calls within a few minutes’ time. And for good reason. Nadeem is probably one of the most written-about politicians in Denmark these days.
Two weeks ago, he became the newest member of the Copenhagen City Council when his party colleague Sikandar Siddique was forced to give up the spot after being found to have been ineligible for election.
Since entering the City Council, journalists have dug through Nadeem’s past comments and appearances, and written fairly extensively on him. He hasn’t yet given a proper, in-depth sit-down interview. Until now.
Who is Nadeem?
Asham Agha Nadeem is a 29-year-old double master’s student, studying business administration and leadership at Roskilde University and business economics at the University of Kiel.
He also works at Turning Tables, an NGO promoting cultural activities amongst young people in Denmark; work he says informs his focus as a politician too.
Nadeem is a member of the minor, left-wing Independent Greens (Frie Grønne) party which is still led by Siddique, although Nadeem is now the party’s only elected official anywhere in Denmark.
Why did you choose to get involved with the Independent Greens?
“I was working on another project with Sikandar before this party actually existed. Then suddenly he came up with the idea that he wanted to make a new political party where the main agenda of the party is to go for a more environmentally friendly approach and a place for more multiculturalism.
“I saw a lot of issues growing up and I saw a lot of judgement of people like me and I wanted to move away from that and seeing the agenda of the Independent Greens, I thought: this is a political party I can see myself in.”
Wouldn’t it have been easier for you to get elected for a party like the Red-Green Alliance (Enhedslisten) or the Alternative (Alternativet)?
“There was some stuff with those parties which made me not that attracted to them. For example when it comes to the Red-Green Alliance, there was a very specific case of the blasphemy paragraph.”
The blasphemy paragraph, which the Red-Green Alliance led a charge to repeal, made it illegal to publicly insult or deride the doctrines or worship of a legally established religious community. The law was repealed in 2017.
“I do understand that freedom of speech is very important, but I do also acknowledge that there is not a complete freedom of speech in Denmark. There are a lot of parameters. To have this fantasy of thinking: ok, we have complete freedom of speech is not true.”
A turbulent journey to City Council
Asham Agha Nadeem stood for the Independent Greens at last year’s local elections, finishing with the second most votes of anyone in that party. However, the party only won a single seat which went to Sikandar Siddique.
However, a long investigative process found that Siddique had not been electorally eligible for the seat to begin with as he did not live in Copenhagen at the time of the election, but instead in Herlev Municipality.
Siddique had been renting an apartment in Copenhagen, but an investigation by the municipality (that was later backed by the Digitalisation Ministry) found a lack of evidence suggesting this was his main residency.
So, two weeks ago, Siddique was removed from the Council, and as the next candidate on the party list, Nadeem took the seat.
How does it feel to know that you’re only in your position because of this scandal?
“It has been weird. It has been very weird. Because I’m not being allowed to actually go into the work as I wanted to. A lot of my time is spent on explaining. I have to explain why it’s legitimate that I got the seat and how what happened wasn’t election fraud.
“I’ll be honest and say that I’m no expert. If the experts have concluded that Sikandar was not legitimately elected to the seat, then I respect that. I’m not coming out and saying that I don’t agree with the decision.
“He basically changed his address and was very transparent about it, and that he wanted to change his address because he wanted to participate in the Copenhagen City Council elections. He did have an address in Copenhagen, but it was not his primary address.”
Sikandar Siddique has in large part blamed the investigation into him on Zionist and elite push-back against a controversial campaign poster the Independent Greens put up across Copenhagen, which advocated for ‘freeing Copenhagen from Zionism’.
Do you agree with Siddique’s suggestion that the investigation was Zionist pushback?
“I have already commented as much as I want to about the posters. My comments are basically: the posters came out and that we then saw whatever happened. I don’t want to go into too much detail with it.”
It is worth noting that the investigation into Siddique did start before the controversial posters were hung.
Rough job start
After his first day in the new job, Nadeem posted on Instagram accusing his new colleagues of bullying. He cited some of the other councillors’ refusal to stand up for him as he first entered the chamber (something which is otherwise tradition when new members take up seats).
Could you take us through what happened on the first day?
“I thought, out of respect, I would have imagined them to be standing up. Besides that, I also received a note in my drawer. I thought that was a bit childish because you cannot win anything politically by it. No media would have seen it. The only person who has acknowledged it is me.
“It was a drawing of Copenhagen and Herlev Municipality and illustrated the distance between the two. I thought it was very unnecessary. There were a lot of other things as well. You have a lot of members who don’t want to speak to me and leave the room whenever I enter it.”
How has this impacted you in your new role?
“I’ll be honest, in the beginning it was difficult because I suddenly felt I was fifteen years old again. But then I understood: okay, this is part of the game. So I just need to take it in and then move forward because this is politics.”
Controversies in the media
In his first two weeks, Nadeem has also received significant media attention for past statements and appearances. One of the controversies was about comments he made on a podcast where he said he supported arranged marriages.
Could you clarify your comments supporting arranged marriages?
“I used to have a podcast. In this podcast we used to interview all kinds of people and we spoke about all kinds of different things. So in one of the episodes we were talking about marriages and I came out and said that I don’t believe that arranged marriage is forced marriage. I think it’s two different things.
“From what I’m used to, arranged marriages are a very normal practice. And I just want to highlight that I distance myself from any kind of force. But it’s very important not to neglect the practice of arranged marriages.
“Arranged marriage is just a third party introducing two people. I want to be able to say something without sounding extreme. And then people tell me, ‘no arranged marriage and forced marriage is the same thing’, which is wrong because that’s not what I’m saying.”
Another controversy he has found himself in involves his participation at a pro-Palestine demonstration in Copenhagen on the two-year anniversary of 7 October attacks against Israel. The organisers of the event have described attacks by Hamas as a ‘counter-offensive by Palestinian resistance groups’.
Therefore, some of his new colleagues have suggested the demonstration was held to celebrate the attack. Lars Aslan Rasmussen, a councillor from the Social Democrats (Socialdemokratiet), suggested Nadeem supports terrorism. Mikkel Bjørn, a councillor from the Danish People’s Party (Dansk Folkeparti), called Nadeem ‘antisemitic’.
Why were you at that demonstration and what happened there?
“So I was invited to a demonstration where they also wanted to remember the civilian lives which unfortunately were lost on 7 October.”
Do you mean Israeli lives?
“Yes. First of all, I would like to share my condolences for those lives. I would never discriminate against anyone based on religion or ethnicity or whatever.
“But we also want to acknowledge that after that attack, it has become an excuse for the state of Israel to go crazy on the Palestinians, which is something that I have a very strong opinion on.
“Because for me it is very important to say that I never believed that the issue started from 7 October. I found it a problem a long time before that as well. And my participation was about highlighting that issue. And then some people go and say I spoke about Hamas, which is bullshit.
“I hadn’t written a speech ahead of time because I knew there wouldn’t be hundreds of people. So I thought: okay, I will go and speak from my heart. But I never promoted violence. That’s a wrong idea that has been made of me. My family fled from terrorism. So why would I ever celebrate terrorism?”
No recordings of the speech Nadeem gave have been made public, so it has not been possible to fact-check his claims about his speech and intention behind his participation.
Nadeem’s priorities
Nadeem has roughly three years left in his new position before the next election.
What do you want to do with your seat and your new political influence?
“I went to elections saying that I would like to see a cheaper Copenhagen. A cheaper daily routine in Copenhagen.
“When it comes to public transportation, I find it very crazy that if I have to go from Nørrebro’s Runddel to Nørrebro Station, that I have to pay twenty-four kroner. For a student, who doesn’t earn that much money, it’s difficult to afford that sort of transportation.”
“Secondly, I would like to see more culture in Copenhagen. And I would like to do more of that in a way where it doesn’t disturb the daily routine of others.
“And lastly, I would like to have a more multicultural city. Copenhagen is one of the most prominent cities in the world. I would like the city to illustrate the acceptance of cultures of each other in a way where it makes sense.”
What does a more multicultural Copenhagen look like?
“It’s about making a framework for people to be able to be themselves. For example, I find it very concerning that there’s a lot of discrimination when you are applying for jobs. If you’re wearing a headscarf, you have to send 60% more applications to get an interview.
“This is something that could be solved very easily by making the application more anonymised, which is something that Copenhagen Municipality has done before, which was a success.”
You represent a party with ‘green’ in its name. What does your environmental and climate policy look like?
“So as a politician, you cannot be strong in every aspect. And for me, it’s very important to be transparent. I am green. I’m more green than I was five or ten years ago.
“But as a person, I would say that I’m more interested and more naturally moving into issues that I have been working more with, which is the stuff that I’ve mentioned earlier.”
In Copenhagen, there’s been a big debate about how car-friendly the city should be. Where do you fall on that debate?
“I’ll be very honest with you. I don’t know if this is the politically correct answer or not, because there has been a lot of discussion within the party about this as well. But I think that there should be fair parking.
“It’s not right that people who live in Copenhagen have to pay a lot of money to be allowed to have their car in their area.
“It’s a very small amount of people who actually need a car in their daily life. But if you are working outside of Copenhagen and want to come home late, then there should also be a possibility for you to park your car.”
How will he achieve this?
Nadeem just has a single seat out of fifty-five in the City Council. So the natural question is, of course, how he would leverage this to achieve his goals.
“So basically when you have the one seat, you suddenly get a power that you wouldn’t have gotten if you went to another party as well because you get the freedom.
“I can go out and ask about anything I want. I can raise issues and then in some cases, I can also be the deciding factor for any kind of bill that has been presented.”
Some of your new colleagues were not happy to see you join the Council. How do you expect to be able to work with them?
“I want to cooperate with everyone. I want to go into this political work where I can look back and say I’ve delivered some results that have made some differences. I’m trying my level best and I have been communicating very nicely with the left-wing parties.
“But I am also trying to reach out to people in the right-wing parties. It’s another thing that they might try to avoid working with me.
“But to be honest, I do have some decent relationships with the Danish People’s Party. I sit next to Christian Bülow, who is surprisingly enough a very, very nice guy. His opinions might be a little bit weird for me, but that’s another thing and I guess he would say the same thing about me.”
Some of your new colleagues have criticised you quite extensively. Social Democrat Lars Aslan Rasmussen has said you support terrorism. Do you speak with some of these very critical colleagues?
“I’m trying to, but they don’t want to speak to me.”
Are you being held out of conversations and negotiations?
“I am as it is right now. I could say ‘hi’ and some of my new colleagues would just ignore me.
“I’ve asked Lars Aslan to go for a coffee with me. If there’s any misunderstanding then I thought: let’s get rid of that and then try to see that we are on the same level and we want the best for people in Copenhagen.
“But I don’t think he has any interest in speaking with me.”
