Today in Sweden: A roundup of the latest news on Friday
Party leader was terror target, Social Democrat manifesto, far-right extremist election candidates, and an air raid warning: find out what's going on in Sweden with The Local's roundup
Swedish party leader Annie Lööf was target of Gotland knife attack
Annie Lööf, leader of the liberal Centre Party, was the intended target of the suspected terror attack at Sweden's Almedalen political festival in July, the prosecutor in the case confirmed on Thursday.
“The suspicion is that the perpetrator intended quite simply to do away with her,” Henrik Olin, the prosecutor in the case, told the TT newswire, while telling the Expressen newspaper that Theodor Engström, who carried out the attack, was willing to plead guilty to preparing to murder the politician, who is a hate figure for many on the far-right.
“His lawyer said at the custody hearing last week that he is ready to accept responsibility for preparation for terror crimes as well, and that relates to this suspected crime.”
Engström, 33, a former member of the neo-Nazi Nordic Resistance Movement and a long-term psychiatric patient, fatally stabbed the prominent psychiatrist Ing-Marie Wieselgren in the main central square in Visby, the main city of Gotland at the start of July.
Swedish vocab: en måltavla – a target
Social Democrats: 'For every krona on more police, one to prevention'
Sweden's Social Democrats have doubled down on their pledge to fight gang crime in Sweden, promising in their election manifesto to spend as heavily on crime prevention and efforts to stop gang recruitment as on additional police.
In a manifesto heavily focused on crime and segregation, the party promised that unlike the right-wing opposition, the party would not stop at being tough on criminals, with longer prison sentences and efforts to change the law to make all involvement in gang activity illegal, but would also target the causes of crime.
Swedish vocab: brottens orsaker – the causes of crime
SD leader downplays report on far-right extremism in party
Jimmie Åkesson, leader of the populist Sweden Democrats has dismissed a report that showed that 214 of the party's candidates in this election have links to the far-Right, saying the report was written by "old left-wing extremists".
The research organisation Acta Publica published the report, Ur mylla brun, (“Out of the brown crowd”), on Thursday, analysing every politician who has stood for election in the last five Swedish elections.
"This report says nothing about what people think," he said in a party leader interview with SVT. "It talks about what books people have read, what parties they went to in the 1990s, and from that information ascribe opinions to people that I think are wrong."
He said it was not surprising that Sweden Democrat candidates were over-represented, as people with an interest in limiting immigration would have spent time on web forums linked to the far-right.
"If you've been engaged or in some way interested in this issue, then there's been a wealth of different internet forums, Facebook pages, and organisations and so, people might have looked about and perhaps not been sufficiently informed to sort between them," he said.
Swedish vocab: påläst – informed, up-to-date
Swedish motorists receive mystery air raid warning
Swedish motorists were left puzzled this week after mistakenly receiving an air raid warning, an incident authorities termed "serious" on Thursday given the war in Ukraine and Russia's irritation over Sweden's Nato bid.
“We are in the process of investigating how it happened", a spokeswoman for the Swedish Transport Administration told AFP.
The alert was sent out on Wednesday on a so-called Traffic Message Channel, a system currently being phased out in Sweden that allows motorists to receive traffic updates via their car radio.
The message was sent out in the southern county of Blekinge, which is home to one of Sweden’s biggest air force bases.
“Important traffic message, Blekinge county: Air raid, danger”, appeared on vehicle dashboards, preceded by a danger triangle.
Media outlets then contacted the Transport Administration, informing it that the warning had been sent out.
Swedish vocab: luftangrepp – ait attack
Nearly 300 Swedish election candidates linked to right-wing extremism
Nearly 300 candidates for Swedish county, municipal and parliamentary elections have expressed racist or neo-Nazi views, according to a new report by the Swedish research company Acta Publica.
Of these, the clear majority of candidates, 214 individuals, were standing for the Sweden Democrats. 22 were Social Democrats, while the Moderates and Christian Democrats had 20 each.
In the report, titled Ur mylla brun, (“Out of the brown crowd”), Acta Publica analysed every politician who has stood for election in the last five Swedish elections. Around 1,100 of those standing for parliamentary elections have been linked to right-wing extremist views.
Swedish vocab: en kartläggning – an analysis/survey/mapping
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Swedish party leader Annie Lööf was target of Gotland knife attack
Annie Lööf, leader of the liberal Centre Party, was the intended target of the suspected terror attack at Sweden's Almedalen political festival in July, the prosecutor in the case confirmed on Thursday.
“The suspicion is that the perpetrator intended quite simply to do away with her,” Henrik Olin, the prosecutor in the case, told the TT newswire, while telling the Expressen newspaper that Theodor Engström, who carried out the attack, was willing to plead guilty to preparing to murder the politician, who is a hate figure for many on the far-right.
“His lawyer said at the custody hearing last week that he is ready to accept responsibility for preparation for terror crimes as well, and that relates to this suspected crime.”
Engström, 33, a former member of the neo-Nazi Nordic Resistance Movement and a long-term psychiatric patient, fatally stabbed the prominent psychiatrist Ing-Marie Wieselgren in the main central square in Visby, the main city of Gotland at the start of July.
Swedish vocab: en måltavla – a target
Social Democrats: 'For every krona on more police, one to prevention'
Sweden's Social Democrats have doubled down on their pledge to fight gang crime in Sweden, promising in their election manifesto to spend as heavily on crime prevention and efforts to stop gang recruitment as on additional police.
In a manifesto heavily focused on crime and segregation, the party promised that unlike the right-wing opposition, the party would not stop at being tough on criminals, with longer prison sentences and efforts to change the law to make all involvement in gang activity illegal, but would also target the causes of crime.
Swedish vocab: brottens orsaker – the causes of crime
SD leader downplays report on far-right extremism in party
Jimmie Åkesson, leader of the populist Sweden Democrats has dismissed a report that showed that 214 of the party's candidates in this election have links to the far-Right, saying the report was written by "old left-wing extremists".
The research organisation Acta Publica published the report, Ur mylla brun, (“Out of the brown crowd”), on Thursday, analysing every politician who has stood for election in the last five Swedish elections.
"This report says nothing about what people think," he said in a party leader interview with SVT. "It talks about what books people have read, what parties they went to in the 1990s, and from that information ascribe opinions to people that I think are wrong."
He said it was not surprising that Sweden Democrat candidates were over-represented, as people with an interest in limiting immigration would have spent time on web forums linked to the far-right.
"If you've been engaged or in some way interested in this issue, then there's been a wealth of different internet forums, Facebook pages, and organisations and so, people might have looked about and perhaps not been sufficiently informed to sort between them," he said.
Swedish vocab: påläst – informed, up-to-date
Swedish motorists receive mystery air raid warning
Swedish motorists were left puzzled this week after mistakenly receiving an air raid warning, an incident authorities termed "serious" on Thursday given the war in Ukraine and Russia's irritation over Sweden's Nato bid.
“We are in the process of investigating how it happened", a spokeswoman for the Swedish Transport Administration told AFP.
The alert was sent out on Wednesday on a so-called Traffic Message Channel, a system currently being phased out in Sweden that allows motorists to receive traffic updates via their car radio.
The message was sent out in the southern county of Blekinge, which is home to one of Sweden’s biggest air force bases.
“Important traffic message, Blekinge county: Air raid, danger”, appeared on vehicle dashboards, preceded by a danger triangle.
Media outlets then contacted the Transport Administration, informing it that the warning had been sent out.
Swedish vocab: luftangrepp – ait attack
Nearly 300 Swedish election candidates linked to right-wing extremism
Nearly 300 candidates for Swedish county, municipal and parliamentary elections have expressed racist or neo-Nazi views, according to a new report by the Swedish research company Acta Publica.
Of these, the clear majority of candidates, 214 individuals, were standing for the Sweden Democrats. 22 were Social Democrats, while the Moderates and Christian Democrats had 20 each.
In the report, titled Ur mylla brun, (“Out of the brown crowd”), Acta Publica analysed every politician who has stood for election in the last five Swedish elections. Around 1,100 of those standing for parliamentary elections have been linked to right-wing extremist views.
Swedish vocab: en kartläggning – an analysis/survey/mapping
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