Lars Ohly was in 2008 nominated for the award Kurd friend of the year (Swedish: Årets kurdvän 2008).

It was also found that, in 2000, Ohly had reworded a letter of apology to the "Kiruna-Swedes" - victims of harassment from the Left Party after their return home from Soviet custody - with a number of critical references to Joseph Stalin being removed.

Following this controversy, the leaders of all the other parliamentary parties have urged Ohly to drop his adherence to communism.

[11] But he stressed at the same time that he would stay faithful to the ideals of communism and always would keep fighting for a "classless society".

The Swedish-Cuban Association supported the government of Fidel Castro in Cuba and does not want to label the country as a dictatorship.

[12] During a live debate on Swedish TV4 on 18 September 2006, the day after the Swedish general election, Ohly caused some controversy when he showed the middle finger to the right-wing commentator Marie Söderqvist for calling his leadership style typical of a communist.

[14] Ohly is strongly opposed to letting privately owned companies operate in industries traditionally controlled by the Swedish state, for instance education and healthcare.

When reporter Janne Josefsson of Uppdrag Granskning confronted him with an interview clip from 2004 where the statement was uttered, Ohly refused to watch it.

Instead, he claimed to have been happy about the events at the time, mentioning that his best friend had sent him a joyous message from Prague in 1989 when the city was being liberated.