Europe's news in English

COPY LINK

POLITICS

Don’t give neo-Nazis space at annual politics week, Swedish parties urge

Sweden's parliamentary parties have urged the hosts of the annual Almedalen politics week not to allow a neo-Nazi organization space for a stall at the festival, after the group applied to take part for the first time.

Published: 4 May 2017 16:46 CEST

Don't give neo-Nazis space at annual politics week, Swedish parties urge

The neo-Nazi Nordic Resistance Movement marching in Falun during May Day. Photo: Ulf Palm/TT

Every year pundits, politicians and lobbyists gather in Visby on the island of Gotland for Almedalen Week, a decades-old staple of the Swedish political calendar. In April it was revealed that neo-Nazi group the Nordic Resistance Movement (NRM) had applied to attend for the first time after forming a party.

Now, the eight parties represented at Sweden's Riksdag have released a joint declaration asking hosts Gotland municipality not to allocate land for the organization during the week.

“As the main organizers we urge Gotland municipality (Region Gotland) not to grant land to NRM or other anti-democratic and violence promoting organizations during Almedalen Week,” the parties wrote in a joint statement.

READ ALSO: Everything you need to know about Almedalen Week

The parties decide who is allowed to take part in the official programme of events during the week, while the municipality decides who is allowed to rent space.

“It's their decision. If they can't guarantee it this year, we hope they can do so for next year,” Almedalen Week 2017 chairman and Social Democrat party member Leif Dahlby told Swedish news agency TT.

READ ALSO: Neo-Nazis to attend iconic Swedish political festival

All of Sweden's parliamentary parties agreed on the statement at a meeting on Thursday, he explained. At the meeting, the organizers formally decided that NRM would not be allowed to participate in the official programme, and added a new rule to the criteria for events stating that participating organizations must not clearly stand for anti-democratic sentiments or promote violence.

“Anti-democratic messages will not be a part,” the Almedalen Week's project manager Mia Stuhre said, adding that it is now up to a technical committee to make a decision on the question of renting land.

The NRM caused anger earlier in May when they marched through central Swedish town Falun on the traditional May Day workers' holiday. Sweden's defence minister Peter Hultqvist blasted their presence, saying the group represents “crimes against humanity”.

'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.

Url copied to clipboard!