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QURAN BURNINGS

Sweden launches inquiry into stopping Quran burnings on security grounds

Sweden's government on Friday launched an inquiry into changing the Public Order Act to make it possible to stop protests, such as Quran burnings, if they represent a security threat.

Sweden launches inquiry into stopping Quran burnings on security grounds
Sweden's Justice Minister Gunnar Strömmer announces the new inquiry at a press conference on Friday. Photo: Anders Wiklund/TT

The inquiry comes after Sweden’s appeals court ruled in June that police had been wrong to deny permission for two Quran-burning protests in February on the grounds that they represented a broader security risk. The court ruled that the Public Order Act as it stands only empowers the police to take into account risks to public safety in the immediate area where an event is taking place. 

This left police powerless to stop a succession of Quran-burning protests in June and July, which led to condemnation from Muslim countries around the world, the storming of Sweden’s embassy in Iraq, and calls from at least five militant Islamic groups for terror reprisals. 

“We are taking responsibility in a difficult situation,” Sweden’s justice minister, Gunnar Strömmer, said at a press conference.  

The government has appointed Matthias Larsson, the Director General of the Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention, to chair the inquiry, which is titled “Increased protection for Sweden’s security at public gatherings”. 

According to the “committee directive“, Larsson should by July 2024 propose changes to the law which will allow that “circumstances which threaten Sweden’s security can be taken into account in the process of deciding on permissions for public gatherings, and in weighing up whether to cancel or break up public gatherings”. 

He will work together on these proposals with a committee of MPs from both government and opposition parties.

Jimmie Åkesson, leader of the far-right Sweden Democrats party, criticised the government for bending in the face of international pressure over the Quran burnings.  

“Even if different values always need to be weighed against each other, the Sweden Democrats are never going to accept that we adjust our behaviour in the face of threats and pressure from Islamists and dictators,” he said in written comment. 

In a joint article in the Dagens Nyheter newspaper, Sweden’s Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, and Ebba Busch and Johan Pehrson, the leaders of Sweden’s two other coalition parties, stressed that the government had not yet decided that police should gain new grounds to stop public gatherings.  

“This is about strengthening Sweden’s legislative readiness against various types of serious threat against Swedes and Swedish interests,” they wrote. “That’s to say, that we are now making sure that there is legislative work prepared which will allow action to be taken in the future if it is required. And that of course must be considered carefully.”

In the article, they explained that Public Order Act, as framed today only gives the government powers to intervene stop, move or break up gatherings “in the event of war or the risk of war”. 

“This means that there is a hole here between ‘the danger of war’ and public disorder in a specific place and this is a security vulnerability,” they wrote.   

At the press conference, Strömmer said that the government was determined that no changes should be made to any of Sweden’s constitutional laws, and there would be no ban on the desecration of religious texts, or similar additional measures to protect religious sensibilities. 

“There are no plans to bring in some kind of crime against the freedom of religion or any changes to hate laws,” he said. “Our starting point is to make no constitutional changes.”

Member comments

  1. Enough with Koran burning. When you are the tenth or twentieth… person to burn a Koran, it is no longer about a protest it is about garnering attention or provocation or anything but a protest.

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MONEY

‘Swift and Eurovision’: Swedish inflation fell less than expected in May

The year-on-year inflation rate fell to 3.7 percent in May, according to new figures from Statistics Sweden.

'Swift and Eurovision': Swedish inflation fell less than expected in May

This is a drop of just 0.2 percentage points in so-called CPI inflation since April. Experts had predicted that inflation would fall by twice as much, to 3.5 percent.

“This is a setback,” Alexandra Stråberg, chief economist at Länsförsäkringar, told the TT newswire.

According to Statistics Sweden, inflation in May was primarily affected by increased housing costs, mainly due to rising interest rates for household mortgages, which pushed up the inflation figure. This was mitigated by some extent by lower electricity, and fuel prices have also had an effect.

“The inflation rate fell in May, even though most service prices increased,” Statistics Sweden statistician Caroline Neander said in a press statement. “It was electricity prices which mainly contributed to the decline.”

Month-on-month, May saw a rise in the prices of transport services – like car rentals, train travel and flights – as well as increased prices for hotel stays, package holidays and food.

This could be due to two major events which took place in Sweden in May: Taylor Swift concerts in Stockholm and the Eurovision Song Contest in Malmö.

“There could be a temporary Swift or Eurovision effect here,” Stråberg said.

The head analyst from Nordea, Susanne Spector, said that this could partially explain the rise, but added that it wouldn’t explain the rise in the cost of services too.

“That’s a risk factor for the central bank,” she told TT.

What does this mean for interest rates?

On June 27th, Sweden’s Riksbank central bank is set to make its next announcement on Sweden’s key interest rate, just one month after it lowered the rate for the first time in eight years.

Even before these inflation figures were announced, Riksbank governor Erik Thedéen made it clear that the bank is not planning on lowering interest rates, stating there would need to be “very large changes” to even begin to discuss it in June – and unexpectedly low inflation figures for May would not be enough on their own.

Now that inflation rates have dropped less than expected, it looks even less likely that the Riksbank will lower the key interest rate in two weeks’ time.

Spector from Nordea believes that the next interest rate drop will be in the autumn.

Länsförsäkringar still predicts three further drops to the interest rate this year, although Stråberg said these figures had increased the likelihood of the bank only cutting the rate twice.

“It depends on next month. There are a lot of months to go which need to confirm the fact that inflation is on a downward trajectory,” she said.

According to chief economist Robert Boije, the most important takeaway from the new figures is the fact that year-on-year inflation did not rise.

“Today’s inflation figures for May from Statistics Sweden don’t give any reason not to believe the conclusion that the spectre of inflation in the Swedish economy has been vanquished,” he told TT.

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