SF leader Pia Olsen Dyhr declined on Thursday to say how soon after his 2020 dismissal former adviser Thomas Nystrøm resumed working for the party as an external consultant.
DR reports that Dyhr faced repeated questions about the case at SF’s summer group meeting at Metalskolen in Jørlunde on Thursday, August 20. She acknowledged that hiring Nystrøm as a special adviser earlier this year was a mistake, but referred further details to what she called a personnel and employment law matter.
Nystrøm was fired from SF in 2020 following accusations of harassment inside the party. Dyhr had defended the appointment by saying that everyone deserves a new chance after six years. It has since emerged that he advised SF through an external bureau during the intervening period.
Per Politiken, Dyhr has described the hiring as a mistake rather than poor judgment. SF’s lands secretary confirmed that Nystrøm contributed through external campaign agencies during later elections. Netavisen Pio reported that he founded the consultancy firm TNC on September 1, 2021, and that the starting point of his consultancy work for SF remains unclear.
The controversy flared again on Monday, when SF campaign manager Thomas Juhl announced that he had resigned in protest. TV 2 reported that Juhl said he could no longer accept the party betraying fundamental values. His resignation over the handling of the harassment case was also reported by Altinget.
Juhl has criticized what he sees as a lack of self-reflection in the party. He has also pointed to the fact that Nystrøm was used as an external consultant for a longer period after the dismissal. Journalists put those criticisms to Dyhr on Thursday, and she did not answer them, citing the personnel case.
According to a disclosure from the Økonomi- og Indenrigsministeriet cited by BT, Nystrøm was appointed special adviser to the economy and interior minister on June 9, 2026. He left the position on July 31, 2026, after choosing to withdraw from the job following criticism. The Copenhagen Post has reported that the accusations against him include groping a party councillor.
Clash with the press at the summer meeting
At the press event, SF group chair Theresa Berg Andersen took the floor and criticized the assembled journalists for asking mainly about the case rather than about concrete policy. Dyhr repeated that she was answering the questions, while asking reporters to respect that a personnel matter was involved.
Asked whether she found the press interest strange, Dyhr said she did not. She noted that SF members care about the case and that the party has a process underway, adding that there were many other subjects that could have been discussed. The pressure on the leadership has built since SF entered government and rehired Nystrøm, a decision that has drawn internal criticism within the party, as covered in reporting on the controversial rehire.
