Gang violence in the home hampers Sweden’s EU vision – POLITICO
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STOCKHOLM — Outside an apartment building in Grimsta, a suburb on the western edge of the Swedish capital, a mother and daughter wept in shock when they first saw the football-sized hole left by an explosive in the front wall of their home.
Police believe the explosive device was thrown in retaliation for a New Year’s Eve shooting outside a McDonald’s restaurant in nearby Vällingby, one of several The latest outbreaks of gang violence all over Stockholm which have left three dead, several injured and the facades of residential buildings blown up, charred and missing glass.
“We are terrified,” said the mother in Grimsta, who did not want to give her name because she feared for her safety. “We know that the explosive was probably aimed at a person who lives in our building, but it affects all of us,” she said.
For Sweden’s new government, elected in September largely on a pledge to tackle gang-related crime, the increase in bloodshed over Christmas and New Year poses a threat to its credibility with voters. Gang crime was the defining issue in last year’s election campaignand new Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson’s commitment to tackling the violence is undoubtedly the policy area that most binds his center-right minority government with the far-right Sweden Democrats (SD), who back him in the Riksdag.
Kristersson has promised to deliver a “paradigm shift” in the criminal justice system by using, among other things, longer prison sentences to get gang members off the street and deter new recruits. While it is still early days for his administration, there are few signs of a turnaround yet.
In Stockholm County alone, 126 shootings occurred recorded 2022, which resulted in 28 deaths, as well as 31 attacks with explosives, which was an increase from 23 deaths as well as 25 attacks with explosives in 2021. Nationwide, Sweden saw 388 shootings resulting in 61 deaths and 90 attacks with explosives last year; the number of deaths increased by a third compared to the previous year.
It is already clear that the violence has continued into 2023. Last week on Wednesday, a man was shot dead at a train station in Jordbro, on the southern edge of Stockholm, and on Thursday a bomb was thrown into an apartment building in the nearby area. Farsta, damaging a stairwell.
Police suspect gang conflicts, many rooted in competition for control of illegal drug sales, have developed into a cycle of revenge attacks now sweeping the city. They believe that the killing of a man on Christmas Day in the Stockholm suburb of Rinkeby may have triggered subsequent attacks in the south of the city.
Kristersson acknowledged the challenge facing the police comments to local TV4 that his Moderate party posted on social media last week and underlined his commitment to action. Europe-wide statistics are scarce for shootings and gang-related violence, but the research that exists suggests that Sweden has among the highest rates of gun homicides in the EU.
A comparison study of Sweden’s National Crime Prevention Council released in 2021 showed that while the number of gun homicides in many other European countries surveyed had fallen in recent years, the numbers had risen in Sweden, something the authors suggested could be attributed to “the emergence of a new group dynamic within the criminal milieu where shootings have come to precipitate each other.”
“We have a comprehensive program to deal with this, but I understand that people are impatient,” the prime minister said. “These people shooting each other in the street are not going to stop because we tell them to; they need to be locked up.”
The escalation of Sweden’s internal security crisis comes at a trying time for Kristersson, just as his government begins its six-month presidency of the EU Council and tries to raise its sights on international challenges. On January 3, as glaziers repaired the blown-out windows in the Grimsta apartment building, Kristersson met French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris to discuss the EU’s response to Russia’s war on Ukraine, energy security, rising inflation and economic competitiveness.
“We Failed You”
At the murder scene in Vällingby, mourners had left candles and notes, some calling for more action closer to home.
An anonymous note said the man who had died there had been let down by his fellow citizens. “We failed you as a society,” the note read.
On December 20, the leaders of the three governing parties plus the far-right Sweden Democrats leader Jimmie Åkesson presented a series of proposed policy changes to reverse the violence. One idea is to allow the police to set up temporary zones where they can conduct searches for weapons and explosives even when they do not suspect crime. The belief is that such efforts, if well deployed, can prevent future crime.
Authorities also believe the use of anonymous witnesses during trials, something currently not allowed, can help secure more convictions.
Both ideas are now under review while their likely effectiveness and impact on citizens’ existing rights is assessed.
Meanwhile, the government is touting its anti-gang agenda, calling it “the biggest offensive in Swedish history against organized crime,” leading some commentators to believe that Kristersson is promising a high-profile initiative even as there are signs that voters are already losing faith in his ability to fulfill campaign promises.
The latest investigation by the pollster Novus, which was published this month, showed that support for the opposition Social Democrats is increasing, while support for Kristersson and his supporters in the Riksdag is ebbing. Meanwhile in mid-December investigation of voters by Demoskop showed that 62 percent of respondents said the new government did a bad job.
Domestic discontent
There have also been examples of division between the government and the far-right SD over criminal justice issues.
After eleven men were recently acquitted by a Swedish court of charges of violent rioting, SD lawmaker Richard Jomshof, who chairs the Riksdag’s justice committee, called the verdict “a joke.” Moderate Party member and legal secretary Gunnar Strömmer criticized statement, saying lawmakers “should not comment on individual cases.”
As Kristersson prepares to welcome the European Commission to a gathering in the Arctic city of Kiruna on Thursday, he will need to keep an eye on bubbling discontent at home over gang violence.
While he will likely try to show Sweden’s best side — the media manual for the Kiruna meeting mentions the northern lights, Sami culture and a space research base — the country’s dark side in the form of street violence that spreads across Stockholm’s suburbs shows few signs. of bleaching.
At a makeshift memorial at the restaurant in Vällingby last week on Tuesday, three women passing by stopped to read messages from mourners.
“Think of the parents, what they have to go through,” one woman told another. “When will this ever end?”