The Swedish politician Rasmus Paludan burns a Koran – crime is increasing in Sweden. Image: Getty Images Europe / Jonas Gratzer
EU
Yasmin Müller / watson.ch
Murder and manslaughter, gang crime and children who offer themselves as contract killers. And right in the middle a Koran goes up in flames. What sounds like an end-time film is reality in Sweden.
The Scandinavian state seems to be failing in a big way in containing a wave of violence that is sweeping over the model country – the situation seems to be escalating. And this despite the fact that the new government actually wanted to do everything better than before.
What’s going on there?
the gangs
While the firearm homicide rate has fallen in many European countries in recent years, the rate has risen in Sweden, as a comparative study published in 2021 by the Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention shows.
In 2022, Sweden even recorded a record number of gun deaths – the number rose by around a third compared to the previous year. Especially the suburbs of the capital Stockholm are shaken by shootings and explosions.
The US magazine Politico a young mother describes her fears while looking at a hole left by explosives in the outer wall of her block of flats:
“We’re scared. We know the explosives were probably aimed at a person living in our building, but it affects us all.”
Explosion at a restaurant, Stockholm, January 17, 2023.Image: Imago/TT / imago images
The most prominent victim of gang terror is rapper Nils “Einár” Grönberg, who was shot dead in Stockholm in October 2021. The trial against the alleged mastermind behind the crime – the leader of the Vårbynätverket – begins on Wednesday.
19-year-old rapper Nils “Einár” Grönberg was murdered in 2021. Image: imago images/TT / imago images
The gangs responsible for the escalation of violence are often active in the drug milieu. A lot of deeds according to SVT be rooted in the rivalry between two gangs for the drug market in Sundsvall.
But the phenomenon is spreading across the country: “I would say that the ‘gangster identity’ is like a trend that’s spreading everywhere,” says scene expert Diamant Salihu during a readers’ question and answer session on public broadcaster SVT.
The state police chief, Anders Thornberg said during a news conference on Mondaythat the situation is now “extremely serious”.
The gang members are frequent Teenagers from immigrant families, according to Salihu. Half of the suspects are under 18, said investigating commander Hanna Paradis recently. Thornberg even speaks of “children”. Carin Götblad, Stockholm County Police Commissioner, describes the case of a 13-year-old who offered himself to the gangs to “kill someone for free” so he could “become someone”.
Sweden’s chief of police, Jale Poljarevius, said about the gang members during a panel discussion at Uppsala University a year ago:
“They shoot at each other and sometimes aim so badly that completely innocent people, even children, are injured or killed.”
Police at a crime scene in Solna where a man was shot dead in the street, January 20, 2023.Image: Imago/TT / imago images
The course of the new government
All this is not really new for the Swedes. Because your country has long struggled with increasing levels of gun violence, largely with organized networks and the organized crime related.
What is new, however, is the political orientation of the government, which was elected in September and is designed to contain the force responsible for. But the situation seems to slip away from her.
Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson came to power after last September’s parliamentary elections, with strong support from the right-wing populist Sverigedemokraterna (SD), among others.
Both Kristersson’s Moderate Party and the SD mainly supported the Pledge to crack down on gang crime. Among other things, they promised stricter immigration controls or even a “paradigm shift” in criminal justice – prison sentences should be extended.
And that course was so well received by voters that popular Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson and her centre-left minority government were ousted.
Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson and his conservative government planned to crack down.Image: AP / Jean-Francois Badias
But as the coalition government must now learn, implementing campaign promises is not quite as easy as winning elections with promises. Because 112 of the 388 shootings that took place in Sweden in 2022 took place in September or later.
On December 20, the leaders of the three governing parties and far-right SD leader Jimmie Åkesson presented a series of policy changes designed to end the violence. Among other things, the police shortly after weapons and explosives, even if they can’t detect any wrongdoing.
The police announced last Friday that they had called additional resources from other regions to Stockholm due to the wave of violence. However, she emphasizes that this will only have a short-term effect, because in the longer term the “key to overcoming gang violence” lies in putting an end to recruitment, according to Thornberg.
The burning Koran and the gangs
While the Swedish police are concentrating in Stockholm to fight gang violence, a holy book went up in flames in Sweden: the right-wing extremist provocateur Rasmus Paludan set a Koran on fire near the Turkish embassy on Saturday – the action was from the been approved by the police.
Rasmus Paludan burns a Koran in front of the Turkish Embassy, January 21, 2023.Image: IMAGO/TT / imago images
The action was met with incomprehension throughout the Muslim world and triggered protests in which, among other things, the Swedish flag was burned. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was also outraged by the “anti-Islamic act in Stockholm” – and threatened Sweden to stop supporting the country in its attempt to join NATO.
While Prime Minister Kristersson apologized to the Muslim community and called the incident “insulting,” the SD chairman Åkesson via Facebook added fuel to the fire when he responded to the prime minister’s words:
“There are limits to how a government should express itself, not least because Sweden has a domestic Islamist threat that should not be underestimated.”
Muslim children and men demonstrate against the burning of the Koran in Sweden, Gaza, January 24, 2023.Image: IMAGO/APAimages / Ashraf Amarax
In Sweden itself there have also been riots during counter-demonstrations in the past few days, there has been damage to property and attacks on the police.
It is not the first time that Paludan has been at the center of such a situation in Sweden. In April 2022, for example, there were major riots across the country after the hardliner announced that he wanted to burn Korans – and the police protected his event.
At that time it was saidthat the Swedish gangs were behind the riots and would profit from the riots and acts of violence against the police. According to Thornberg, the main target of the rioters is not Paludan, but the Swedish police and society.
Riots in Malmo 2022.Image: johan Nilsson/tt / imago images
Criticism of the course of government
Critics doubt that the new government will be able to get the multi-layered violence in the country under control.
Police chief Poljarevius dismisses the promises of “destroying crime” as empty rhetoric. Crime has always existed and always will, he says. what it his opinion after really needs, would be a social mobilization. And more resources are needed to help individuals get out of the criminal life – and last but not least, a targeted restoration of trust in the authorities is needed.
Swedish journalist Karin Pettersson analyzed in a guest article in the British magazine New Statesmanthat the new government has the wrong focus – “increasing segregation” is the “key factor” for the violence. But the government touts only introducing stricter requirements for Swedish citizenship or restricting the right to family reunification as a solution.
“This myopic focus on immigration and crime has obscured other but equally important and problematic major changes in Swedish society.”
The journalist sees a solution to gang violence not in deportations, but in fighting growing inequality through, for example, the privatization of schools or the lack of social services and affordable housing.
Justice Minister Gunnar Strömmer from the Moderate Party is now also talking about a social failure.Image: Fredrik Sandberg / TT / imago images
The latest survey by the Swedish polling institute Novusreleased in early January, shows that support for the government is steadily declining – while the opposition is growing.
Justice Minister Gunnar Strömmer from the Moderate Party is now also talking about a social and political failure:
“Our approach to youth who are on the brink of delinquency is not designed to deal with reality, so a shift in this system is needed.”
Scene expert Salihu confirms that deportation is not a solution, because the perpetrators are a “product of our common society”.
And so, according to “Politico”, the note was found next to a recently shot man:
“We have failed you as a society.”
