To help put a lid on pervasive lawlessness and violence afflicting the nation, Sweden’s Tidö government on Monday morning during its unveiling of the spring budget announced substantial increases in spending to, among other things, combat crime and strengthen security.
The government’s announcement of a 1.45 billion euro (16 billion SEK) budget enlargement, some of which will go to expand prisons and detention centers, comes days after a tragic incident last week that saw a 39-year-old father gunned down in broad daylight in front of his son after a confrontation with a gang of ‘youths’ in a Stockholm suburb.
The murder prompted the leader of the conservative, sovereigntist Sweden Democrats Jimme Åkesson to call for a “full-scale war” to be declared on gang criminals.
The father, who according to reports from Swedish media had long been frustrated by the presence of narco gangs in the community, had been cycling to the swimming pool in Stockholm’s Skärholmen district with his 12-year-old son last Wednesday when he came upon a group of youths in an underpass.
A verbal exchange between the man and the teenagers escalated and culminated in one of the youths pulling out a gun and shooting the father in the head as his son helplessly looked on.
The brazen murder, indicative of the rapidly degenerating social crisis facing the once safe and peaceful nation, has left figures like Åkesson calling into question Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson’s approach to solving Sweden’s gang problem.
The Sweden Democrat leader, reacting to the murder, declared that he and his party are “prepared to do everything to ensure that what happened in Skärholmen does not happen again.” He added,
I think international conventions, stale old arguments about socio-economic factors, or stupid talk about crime prevention centers should be thrown in the trash immediately. It’s not enough to spout platitudes, it’s time for Sweden to declare all-out war on every single individual in these criminal gangs.
Åkesson urged the ruling center-right bloc to adopt tougher measures that go beyond those outlined in the ruling coalition’s agreement, known as the Tidö Agreement. For the Sweden Democrat chief, the deployment of the military onto city streets—a possibility mentioned by PM Kristersson last fall—is necessary to restore order.
“Other parties have also approached it, but then it has been more about supplementing the police. I think that we may have passed that point now and that it is more likely that we need the military on the streets as we see in other parts of Europe,” he said during a segment on Swedish television.
“The entire political leadership in the country needs to send the signal that we are in a war, that we are prepared to prosecute that war, and that we are prepared to do exactly what it takes to win the war,” Åkesson told Aftonbladet.
Louise Meijer, a member of the Riksdag’s justice committee for Kristersson’s Moderate Party, takes a slightly different position, suggesting that the reforms laid out in the coalition agreement are sufficient but need to be fully implemented.
“What has happened is absolutely terrible and we really need to implement the system change that the Moderate-led government is now working on,” Meijer said.
Criticism of Kristersson’s Moderate Party’s failure to temper the migrant gang problem also came, ironically and opportunistically, from the left-liberal Swedish Social Democratic Party, which, given its encouragement and promotion of unfettered mass migration during its decades-long rule, is largely to blame for the crisis.
“This is not acceptable. [Kristersson’s coalition] has been in power for two years,” Social Democrat Riksdag member and legal policy spokesman Ardalan Shekarabi said, appearing to ignore the fact that a crisis that took decades to take root simply isn’t solved in a matter of two years.
To his credit, Shekarabi did admit that the Social Democrats’ “recipes” were “insufficient” when they were in government. “Every month we see new lines being crossed,” he continued:
We need to work together. We need to bring the whole of society together to stop new recruitment, mark the children and young people who are on their way into the gangs, and make extensive efforts to ensure that they do not fall into the hands of the gangs.
The government’s planned expenditure hikes also seek to quash the flourishing and increasingly diversified criminal economy, which in recent years has witnessed gangs opening healthcare clinics, vaccination centers, and family home operations eligible to receive state funds.
The Swedish Tax Agency, Customs Agency, Enforcement Agency, Social Insurance Agency, and Health and Social Care Inspectorate are also set to receive considerable funding boosts to better fight welfare crime, insurance fraud, tax fraud, and other financial crimes increasingly being committed by gang networks.
The sister of the murdered father, in comments given to Swedish media, laid the blame on complacent politicians and expressed having little faith that any meaningful action would be taken against the gangs.
They approached us, apologized, and greeted us. Then they went to the cameras, and then home. I’m tired of this fake game, especially since my brother had to pay with his life for standing up. They come here, and they’re fake. It’s not right. All the blood is on their hands. Now, they will hear it. I hope everyone will dare to speak up and say what they think, not just reciprocate with a smile.
