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The events of the weekend in Sweden give momentum to those parties that have been calling for a police force for some time.
Why is? Violent riots broke out in several cities in Sweden over the Easter holidays. According to the Swedish police, at least 26 police officers and 14 civilians were injured. Several vehicles burned and Molotov cocktails flew. By Easter Monday, the police had arrested 40 people. About half of them were under 18 years old.
How could it possibly come this far? The riots began with one of several approved rallies by the right-wing extremist and Islamophobic Danish-Swedish politician Rasmus Paludan, at which he burned a Koran. SRF Northern Europe employee Bruno Kaufmann knows that he did not appear at the other rally locations. The Swedish-Danish dual citizen is also not supported by the right-wing extremists in Sweden. “That’s why it was surprising that the police, who were supposed to monitor these rallies, suddenly encountered hooded youths who attacked them.”
Legend:
Paludan is the founder of the Danish anti-immigration and Islamophobic party Stram Kurs (“Hard Course”). He was convicted twice for making racist remarks.
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What role did gangs play in this? On Easter Monday, the Swedish police chief said there were indications that criminal gangs were involved in the riots. These have become established in many of Sweden’s suburbs – “where many concrete blocks were built in the 1960s and 1970s and where the socially disadvantaged, who immigrated from abroad, are the main people now living,” says Kaufmann. Not least because of Sweden’s restrictive drug policy, organized crime has established itself in these suburbs, which controls the drug trade in the country and repeatedly comes into conflict with the police. “And these drug gangs now used the stage, this opportunity, to get one over on the police.”
What is Sweden doing about it? Gang crime has long been an issue in Sweden. There are regular shootings in this milieu. “It’s a clear political failure,” says the Northern Europe expert. This has been evident for years. “About ten years ago there were riots in the suburbs,” says Kaufmann. This after there had been arrests that were not appreciated locally. “People said at the time that the problems were serious and that they wanted to invest in the suburbs. But little has happened since then.” Now you have received the receipt, so to speak.
The debate about water cannons and rubber bullets for the police is now intensifying in view of the elections.
What does this mean for the elections? Parliamentary elections will be held in Sweden in six months. According to Kaufmann, recent events are putting domestic politics back on the agenda. Because in the last few weeks, foreign and security policy have dominated everything because of the Ukraine war. But this time there is a big difference. “Ten years ago people said they wanted to invest in education, in schools and in local houses. But now it’s the hour of the hardliners, »says Kaufmann. Now it is said that the police must be better equipped, they need water cannons, they need rubber bullets. Violent demonstrators without a Swedish passport should be expelled. “You can see that this debate is now intensifying in view of the Swedish elections.”