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Rainbow flag compared to swastika by councillor

A councillor in Västerås, central Sweden, is facing an angry backlash after comparing the flying of a rainbow flag with putting up a Nazi swastika.

Published: 9 June 2015 11:21 CEST
Updated: 9 June 2015 16:43 CEST

Rainbow flag compared to swastika by councillor

People holding a rainbow flag at the Stockholm Pride festival in 2013. Photo: TT

Morgan Emgardsson, who is a councillor for the centre-right Christian Democrat party in the city of Västerås, rejected a motion by the City Council to fly a rainbow flag to mark the city’s gay pride festival, saying that if the flag was approved then the Nazi flag should also be allowed.

Emgardsson then attempted to clarify his position, saying: “I just wanted to say that if we allow the disclosure of an organization’s flag, then we must allow others. The municipality should just have the Swedish flag and its own flag.”

Flying the rainbow flag, which has been a symbol of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) pride and LGBT social movements since the 1970s, was nevertheless overwhelmingly approved by the City Council.

Moderate councillor Johan Henriksson, who proposed the motion, described the councillor’s remarks as “upsetting”.

“There’s a big difference between a swastika and a rainbow flag. Rainbow flags don’t belong to any organization. It is a symbol for the right of all people to love whoever they want,” he was quotes as saying by Swedish broadcaster SVT.

A spokesperson for the Christian Democrats told The Local the comparison was “unacceptable”.

“This is not what we stand for as a party,” she said. The spokeswoman added that the councillor had since apologized for the comments, saying that he did not mean to make the comparison in that way.

The Local has also contacted the gay rights organization RFSL for comment.

Emgarsson is expected to release a statement later today.

The Christian Democrats are one of the smallest political parties in Sweden, but had a strong presence in the previous national goverment as part of former Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt’s Alliance centre-right coalition.

'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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