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Swedish PM promises to tackle segregation

Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Löfven has announced a new government programme designed to combat segregation in Sweden.

Published: 6 July 2016 07:50 CEST
Swedish PM promises to tackle segregation
Löfven speaking at the annual Almedalen politics meet-up. Photo: Henrik Montgomery/TT

In his Tuesday speech at the annual Almedalen politics meet-up on Gotland, the Swedish PM warned that the country may be fractured if segregation is not tackled.

“There must be an end to the shootings, car burnings and drug trade,” he said.

“Religious extremist should not be able to gain power in the public sphere and decide where women can be, and how they dress.”

Löfven presented the ten-point government scheme before his speech. Running until 2025, it will receive 250 million kronor ($29.2 million) of government funding.

Among the points promised were a review of the punishments for attacks against police, as well as handing Sweden’s employment agency Arbetsförmedlingen the mission of increasing employment among foreign-born women.

Tens of millions of kronor per year will go to school initiatives in disadvantaged areas, while 14 million kronor ($1.6 million) will be directed towards supporting sports leaders.

Swedish police have identified 53 vulnerable residential areas, of which 15 are considered particularly vulnerable. The latter are characterized by parallel social structures, violent religious extremism, and a difficulty for police attempting to carry out their duties there.

The Prime Minister rejected suggestions that the programme would mostly consist of surveys and studies, saying that was “not a correct description” of the project.

Löfven also talked about the government investing 60 billion kronor ($7 billion) in “societal building” in the form of a larger programme first outlined last spring. That larger scheme includes sending 10 million kronor ($1.1 million) extra in grants to municipalities, as well as investment in schools, transportation and homes. Those investments are for the entirety of Sweden.

When asked by Swedish news agency TT how the money from the new program will be correctly directed towards the affected areas, Löfven said that there will be an agreement made between delegations and the municipalities in vulnerable areas over what should be done.

Political science professor Jonas Hinnfors said he was surprised to find Löfven’s programme vague and containing little money, while the government simultaneously depicts segregation as one of the great social challenges in Sweden.

“They are exposing themselves to the risk of receiving strong criticism for not doing much about a problem they are talking about in such strong terms,” he told TT.

The political scientist said he thinks the reform is fresh evidence of how difficult it is for the Social Democrats to allocate resources to projects considered “major reforms”.

Sweden’s opposition Alliance coalition criticized the scheme. Centre Party leader Annie Lööf described it as “meaningless”, calling for concrete initiatives and highlighting the Alliance proposal of hiring 2000 more police officers.

Moderate party secretary Tomas Tobé was surprised meanwhile that the possibility of tougher sentences for attacks against the police will first require investigation.

“It isn’t enough to investigate when stones are raining over the Swedish police,” he said.

For members

POLITICS

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

Sweden’s political leaders are putting the population’s well-being at risk by moving the country in a more authoritarian direction, according to a recent report.

Published: 29 April 2024 08:56 CEST
'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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