The country has been agitated for several days by demonstrations opposing the anti-Islam and anti-immigration “Hard Line” movement. Incidents resulted in several injuries.
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New episode in the series of incidents which has been agitating Sweden for several days. Three people were injured by police gunfire during clashes on the sidelines of protests against the far right in Norrköping, south-west of Stockholm, Swedish police said on Sunday (April 17th).
The injured were reportedly hit by “ricochets” of “several warning shots” fired by members of the security forces, police said. The three injured, whose condition is not known, are also “under arrest, suspected of a crime”.
This is the second such clash in four days in Norrkoping. The purpose of this demonstration was to protest against a rally (eventually cancelled) of the movement anti-immigration and anti-Islam “hard line”. Its leader, Rasmus Paludan, has been organizing a series of gatherings for several days, where he goes to neighborhoods with a large Muslim population to burn a copy of the Koran there. The trained lawyer, sentenced for racist insults, has been multiplying controversial initiatives for a few years.
The demonstrations organized against Hardline since the start of its tour have been accompanied by incidents. In Malmö, where demonstrators threw stones and Molotov cocktails at the police, other clashes left around 12 police officers injured on Thursday and Friday, and a few lightly injured overnight from Saturday to Sunday.
Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson has spoken out against the violence. “In Sweden people are allowed to express their opinions, whether in good or bad taste, it’s part of our democracy. No matter what you think, you should never resort to violence. We don’t ‘will never accept’she said on Friday, April 15. “This is exactly the kind of backlash that he [Rasmus Paludan] want to seeshe added. The very purpose is to incite people to oppose each other.”