SF leader Pia Olsen Dyhr said on Wednesday that her June hiring of a special adviser with a history of harassment was a mistake, not a case of poor judgment.
Dyhr, who is economy and interior minister, was asked about the case at a press conference in the Prime Minister’s Office in Copenhagen. As DR reports, she rejected the idea that her judgment could be questioned and called the appointment an error. The question came on August 19, as the government presented its work programme.
Dyhr hired Thomas Nystrøm as her special adviser in June 2026, shortly after she became a minister. According to DR, she did so despite opposition within the SF party organization. Nystrøm had left the party in 2020 by mutual agreement after several harassment cases.
One of those cases involved Lotte Kofoed, an SF councillor in Frederiksberg Municipality. She has said publicly that Nystrøm put his hand down her trousers at SF’s 2020 party congress, followed her into another room and threw beer at her. Nystrøm has said he does not remember the episode, but he does not dispute it.
Nystrøm announced in June that he was stepping down from the adviser post. Politiken reported on June 13, 2026, that he resigned after intense criticism of the appointment. Berlingske noted on June 14, 2026, that he had left SF in 2020 following allegations of harassment and inappropriate behavior.
Party says the process is internal
At Wednesday’s press conference, Dyhr said the matter has been concluded and that SF is in a process with Kofoed and with the parties involved in Frederiksberg. She described it as an internal process within the party. She has declined to give the apology that Kofoed has demanded from her party leader.
DR reports that SF has also used Nystrøm as an external consultant since parting ways with him in 2020. The party has refused to say how soon after his departure that work began. It has not confirmed whether it started in 2020, 2021 or later.
Criticism has continued from inside the party. On Monday, former SF campaign manager Thomas Juhl said he had resigned before the summer holidays. According to DR, he pointed to the handling of the MeToo case and the rehiring of an adviser who had previously lost his job over repeated harassment.
Juhl wrote on Facebook that he was deeply disappointed, not only that mistakes were made, but by what he saw as a lack of self-reflection in the leadership. The Copenhagen Post reported his resignation on August 17, 2026, in an English-language roundup of the case.
Television host Sofie Linde, who set off the second Danish MeToo wave in 2020, criticized the party in June on the DR program Deadline. She said Kofoed had been treated in an undignified way by SF. Dyhr said in June that she would not have made the same decision with what she later learned.
