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Malmö gears up for massive demonstration

Around 20,000 anti-globalization protesters are expected to march through the streets of Malmö on Saturday, in what some observers are calling the largest demonstrations held in Sweden in decades.

Published: 19 September 2008 13:25 CEST

“This will probably be the biggest demonstration [in Sweden] since the end of World War II,” organizer Peter Johansson told reporters at the European Social Forum in of Malmö.

The four-day forum has requested that police keep a discreet presence at the march, and only a few dozen officers will be visible along the demonstration route, Anders Svensson, who is in charge of protest security, told AFP.

“That is one of our demands to police,” he said, adding that organizers wanted to avoid a repeat of the 2001 clashes between protesters and officers in the southwestern city of Gothenburg, when 250 people were injured, including three demonstrators shot by police.

“We will have a very low profile. We won’t have lots of policemen in the streets (but) we will have officers (on call near) the demonstration,” Malmö police spokesman Lars Förstell told AFP.

“We will have plenty of police resources to take care of whatever might happen,” he added.

The demonstration, titled “Power to the People — Against Capitalism and Environmental Destruction. Another World is Possible!”, will begin in a working class neighbourhood on the outskirts of Malmö.

Protesters will then march 7.5 kilometres into the centre of town.

Calls for independent activists to demonstrate on Friday evening have also been circulating on the Internet.

POLITICS

Red-green coalition takes power in Gothenburg

The Social Democrats, Green Party and Left Party have managed to oust the right-wing Moderates from power in Gothenburg, despite failing to strike a coalition deal with the Centre Party.

Published: 28 October 2022 15:34 CEST
Red-green coalition takes power in Gothenburg

The Social Democrats, Left Party and Green Party will now take over the municipality with Jonas Attenius, group leader for the Social Democrats in the city, becoming the new mayor.

“We three parties are ready to together take responsibility for leading Gothenburg,” Attenius wrote to TT. “I am looking forward immensely to leading Gothenburg in the coming years.” 

The three parties will lead a minority government, with 40 out of 81 mandates, meaning it will dependent on mandates from the Centre Party to pass proposals. 

The three parties had hoped to bring the Centre Party into the coalition, but talks fell apart on Monday,  October 24th. 

“We our going into opposition, but our goal is to be an independent, liberal force, which can negotiate both to the left and to the right,” the party’s group leader in Gothenburg, Emmyly Bönfors told the Göteborgs-Posten newspaper. 

The end of talks in Gothenburg leave the Social Democrats leading coalition governments in all three of Sweden’s major cities, with Karin Wanngård appointed Mayor of Stockholm on October 17th. 

The Social Democrats had unbroken control in Malmö since 1994, after they regained power from the Moderates, who controlled the city from 1991-1994, and also from 1985-1988. 

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