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REMEMBERING OLOF PALME

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Olof Palme paid homage in Stockholm

Prime Minister Olof Palme who was murdered 25 years ago on the 28th February was paid homage today at a seminar in Stockholm. Former ministers, party colleagues and family members all paid tribute at the ABF-huset in Stockholm.

Published: 26 February 2011 17:06 CET

Olof Palme paid homage in Stockholm

“Olof Palme’s thoughts and actions have influence upon many people today” Pierre Schori, former deputy foreign minister told guests at the seminar.

Monday 28th February is the 25th anniversary of the assassination of Olof Palme, a case which is still officially open with Swedish police.

Saturday’s seminar was organized by the Olof Palme International Centre. Former ministers, party colleagues and family members rallied in the ABF-house – which has also renamed one of its meeting rooms to The Palme Room.

Ingvar Carlsson, who knew Palme for 30 years and became his successor as prime minister, spoke of his tremendous political nerve, presence and ability to communicate.

“I honestly admired Olof Palme’s ability to inspire” Carlsson told those present.

Carlsson emphasized Palme’s breadth. “He was an ideologue and practitioner, brilliant in both the spoken and written word on both the national and international stage.”

“He had the ability to face a problem in small town Sweden one week and stand on the UN’s podium the next” Carlsson continued.

Lena Hjelm-Wallen was elected to parliament in 1968 and was minister for education in Palme’s government, and later foreign minister.

“Olof Palme opened the eyes of many of us to the world, but we must also remember his extremely important impact on domestic politics” she told the attendees at ABF-huset

Olof Palme was murdered by an unknown assassin as he made his was home from the cinema with his wife on the evening of the 28th February 1986. His murder, which remains unsolved, is often seen as a watershed in Swedish society.

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'Very little debate' on consequences of Sweden's crime and migration clampdown

The Liberties Rule of Law report shows Sweden backsliding across more areas than any other of the 19 European Union member states monitored, fuelling concerns that the country risks breaching its international human rights obligations, the report says.

“We’ve seen this regression in other countries for a number of years, such as Poland and Hungary, but now we see it also in countries like Sweden,” says John Stauffer, legal director of the human rights organisation Civil Rights Defenders, which co-authored the Swedish section of the report.

The report, compiled by independent civil liberties groups, examines six common challenges facing European Union member states.

Sweden is shown to be regressing in five of these areas: the justice system, media environment, checks and balances, enabling framework for civil society and systemic human rights issues.

The only area where Sweden has not regressed since 2022 is in its anti-corruption framework, where there has been no movement in either a positive or negative direction.

Source: Liberties Rule of Law report

As politicians scramble to combat an escalation in gang crime, laws are being rushed through with too little consideration for basic rights, according to Civil Rights Defenders.

Stauffer cites Sweden’s new stop-and-search zones as a case in point. From April 25th, police in Sweden can temporarily declare any area a “security zone” if there is deemed to be a risk of shootings or explosive attacks stemming from gang conflicts.

Once an area has received this designation, police will be able to search people and cars in the area without any concrete suspicion.

“This is definitely a piece of legislation where we see that it’s problematic from a human rights perspective,” says Stauffer, adding that it “will result in ethnic profiling and discrimination”.

Civil Rights Defenders sought to prevent the new law and will try to challenge it in the courts once it comes into force, Stauffer tells The Local in an interview for the Sweden in Focus Extra podcast.

He also notes that victims of racial discrimination at the hands of the Swedish authorities had very little chance of getting a fair hearing as actions by the police or judiciary are “not even covered by the Discrimination Act”.

READ ALSO: ‘Civil rights groups in Sweden can fight this government’s repressive proposals’

Stauffer also expresses concerns that an ongoing migration clampdown risks splitting Sweden into a sort of A and B team, where “the government limits access to rights based on your legal basis for being in the country”.

The report says the government’s migration policies take a “divisive ‘us vs them’ approach, which threatens to increase rather than reduce existing social inequalities and exclude certain groups from becoming part of society”.

Proposals such as the introduction of a requirement for civil servants to report undocumented migrants to the authorities would increase societal mistrust and ultimately weaken the rule of law in Sweden, the report says.

The lack of opposition to the kind of surveillance measures that might previously have sparked an outcry is a major concern, says Stauffer.

Politicians’ consistent depiction of Sweden as a country in crisis “affects the public and creates support for these harsh measures”, says Stauffer. “And there is very little talk and debate about the negative consequences.”

Hear John Stauffer from Civil Rights Defender discuss the Liberties Rule of Law report in the The Local’s Sweden in Focus Extra podcast for Membership+ subscribers.

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