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INSIDE SWEDEN

Inside Sweden: More podcasts, escalating gang violence and royal stories

The Local's editor Emma Löfgren writes about some of the stories we've been covering this week in our Inside Sweden newsletter.

Published: 16 September 2023 07:16 CEST
Inside Sweden: More podcasts, escalating gang violence and royal stories
King Carl XVI Gustaf on the day of his 50th jubilee. Photo: Jessica Gow/TT

Hej,

The Local’s Sweden in Focus podcast is growing in popularity and we’re now considering expanding our podcast offering in response to feedback from readers and listeners.

It will depend on how many people are interested in more podcasts, and on whether or not we have the resources to actually record them, so if you have time to fill out this survey it would be so helpful to us.

If you’ve already filled out the survey, thank you. I’m slightly overwhelmed by how many people are using this survey to leave extremely kind and thorough feedback on the Sweden in Focus podcast and The Local. We’ll feed it back into our editorial decisions, so it’s very useful.

Gang conflict rocks Sweden

A gang conflict sparked a wave of violence in the university town of Uppsala and capital Stockholm this and last week, with six fatal shootings at the time of writing this newsletter on Friday afternoon.

According to reports in Swedish media, at least most of the recent incidents seem to be linked to a conflict between the leader of the so-called Foxtrot gang and one of its members after a falling out.

Sweden’s national police chief Anders Thornberg called the shootings “unprecedented” in that they seem to actively target the relatives of gang criminals, even if the victims have no criminal history themselves.

First, the mother of one of the gang leaders was murdered in an apparent revenge shooting after an attack on Foxtrot leader Rawa Majid, also known as “the Kurdish fox”, at his hideout in Istanbul, Turkey.

A 13-year-old boy was found shot dead, his body dumped in the forest.

A 25-year-old man who worked in the elderly care sector and had moved to Uppsala to study law, was gunned down outside his home when shooters mistook him for the relative of a gang member.

And the mother-in-law of Majid told Expressen she lives in fear after shots were fired at a building near her home. Police believe the shots were meant for her, but the shooters got the wrong address.

“I’ve been jumpy and terrified. My god! I had my son at home and I was on my way to my night job. It was expected, sure, but I have nothing to do with the conflict,” she told Expressen.

Police have made a series of arrests in connection with the shootings, but the violence could also have consequences for the rather strained diplomatic ties between Sweden and Turkey.

Majid, who is also suspected of being Sweden’s biggest drug trafficker, was briefly arrested in Turkey in spring, then released. When a Swedish prosecutor tried to get him extradited, Turkey said no on the grounds that he had been given Turkish citizenship and as such could not be extradited.

What’s more, Aftonbladet revealed on Friday that a confidential intelligence report which Sweden had handed to Turkey to help them arrest Majid had been leaked to people in the Foxtrot network.

So even if Swedish police manage to crack down on this recent violence, it won’t be over yet.

I’ve received questions from readers about what Sweden could do to combat gang violence, so I wanted to share this article by my colleague Richard from this summer, which looks at exactly that.

King celebrates 50th anniversary

King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden celebrated his 50th jubilee this week (spare a thought for Prince Daniel, whose 50th birthday on Friday was overshadowed by his father-in-law’s anniversary).

If you listen to our Sweden in Focus podcast, you can hear Paul put Becky and myself to the test to see how much we actually know about the king, and turns out it’s not a lot (in my defence, he has a lot of grandchildren – how is anyone supposed to be able to remember them?).

If you want to try the quiz yourself, here’s a link.

My only personal relation to the king is that my father used to teach summer classes at Sigtuna Boarding School back when the king attended it as a high school student (during term time).

One day, he spotted two American tourists wandering the grounds. They knew that the Swedish crown prince went there and asked my dad if it would be possible to see the prince’s room?

My dad generously said “of course”, took them to his own room and lied that it belonged to the prince. They were delighted. The prince’s room! What a story to tell their friends back home.

So if any of our readers from the US have parents or grandparents who once visited the Swedish Crown Prince’s room at Sigtuna Boarding School… er, I apologise.

Have a great weekend,

Emma

Inside Sweden is our weekly newsletter for members that gives you news, analysis and, sometimes, takes you behind the scenes at The Local. It’s published each Saturday and members can receive it directly to your inbox, by going to your newsletter preferences.

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For members

INSIDE SWEDEN

Inside Sweden: What does Sweden Democrats’ election flop mean for foreigners?

The Local's editor Emma Löfgren rounds up the biggest stories of the week in our Inside Sweden newsletter.

Published: 15 June 2024 11:48 CEST
Inside Sweden: What does Sweden Democrats' election flop mean for foreigners?

Hej,

The far-right Sweden Democrats have had a week of reckoning after they lost votes in the EU election – the first time in the party’s history that it’s performed worse in a national or EU election than previous elections. Thus far it had always been on an upward trajectory, a trend that is now broken.

In some districts it saw voters’ support reduced by up to a third, and in Sölvesborg (the popular party leader Jimmie Åkesson’s home town) where support also fell, there was talk of organising crisis meetings.

Let’s not exaggerate what this means. The Sweden Democrats get to keep their three seats in the European Parliament, and voting patterns for the EU election are usually different from the national elections (the Greens performed almost three times better than in the last national election less than two years ago).

A major poll this week suggested that the Sweden Democrats would win 19.5 percent of the vote if an election were held today – one percentage point lower than its 2022 election result, but better than its 13 percent in the EU election.

It is still a member of Sweden’s ruling Tidö coalition and it’s hardly the only party in favour of stricter migration: the right-wing Moderates and Christian Democrats, and the centre-left Social Democrats have all had a hand in the tightening of rules that have impacted foreigners in Sweden in recent years.

But its poor performance does tell us something, which may have at least a small chance at influencing the Swedish political debate in the years ahead.

It suggests that the Sweden Democrats are less able than many thought at mobilising its potential voters. Its voters are generally sceptical of the EU and less keen to vote in the EU election, not even for the Sweden Democrats.

It suggests that Åkesson overplayed his hand when he wrote an opinion piece in the run-up to the election seeking to legitimise the concept of folkutbyte, a clear reference to the Great Replacement Theory that underpinned the deadly terror attack mounted by the Norwegian extremist Anders Breivik.

It suggests that the party played it wrong when it launched a verbal attack on TV4, refusing to apologise after the broadcaster revealed that the party operated a so-called troll factory. Perhaps the public thought showing just a little bit of contrition would have been a more appropriate reaction.

It suggests that peace, democracy, the climate and European cohesion – none of which are Sweden Democrat core issues – are important to voters.

And it rocks the boat for a party that perhaps for the first time failed at what it claims to do better than anyone else: gauging the mood of the nation.

What topics would you like The Local to cover?

It’s a challenging time for the media industry with volatile tech algorithms and advertising markets hitting even the biggest of newsrooms. That’s why I wrote a couple of weeks ago that it’s such a relief that our focus and number one resource here at The Local isn’t the tech giants, but our readers.

I’d like to take a moment to ensure that we’re continuing to meet your needs. Please fill out this survey to suggest stories we should cover in the year ahead.

In other news

The number of Swedish work permits rejected because the applicant’s salary is too low has increased by almost 2,000 percent since the country tightened the rules last year, according to new figures supplied to The Local.

There are plenty of things Sweden could do to help foreigners integrate, said The Local’s readers when we asked for their suggestions as to how the country could become more inclusive.

Saudi Arabia, the UAE and India are the top investment destinations for Swedish companies, meaning that businesses are planning on increasing their investments in these markets over the next 12 months.

English speakers who don’t speak Swedish can currently only donate blood in Stockholm, but The Local has been told of plans to roll out the service to Gothenburg and Uppsala in the year ahead.

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

Hundreds of British citizens are still battling rejected applications to stay in Sweden, nearly two and a half years after the deadline to apply for post-Brexit residency status. The Local spoke to four of them.

Sweden’s Migration Agency has sent an analysis to the EU Commission, in which it concludes that its near blanket refusal of late applications for post-Brexit residency has been ‘at the right level’ and is of ‘a high legal quality’.

The number of beaches in Sweden which are checked and graded is growing every year, making it easy to make sure that where you are swimming is clean and safe. These are the cleanest beaches in Sweden this summer.

From TV schedules to bars and cafes, here are your options for watching all matches of the Euro 2024 football tournament in Sweden.

Thanks for reading and have a good weekend!

Best wishes,

Emma

Inside Sweden is our weekly newsletter for members which gives you news, analysis and, sometimes, takes you behind the scenes at The Local. It’s published each Saturday and with Membership+ you can also receive it directly to your inbox.

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