Helsinki – Riots broke out in southern Sweden late last Saturday despite police moving a demonstration by an anti-Islam far-right group, which planned to burn a Koran, among other places, to a new location as a preventive measure.
Riots and unrest were reported in the southern city of Landskrona after a demonstration planned there by the Danish right-wing party Stram Kurs was moved to the nearby city of Malmö, about 45 kilometers (27 miles) south.
Up to 100 most young people threw stones, set fire to cars, tires and dustbins and set up a fence that obstructed traffic, Swedish police say. The situation had calmed down in Landskrona at the end of Saturday but is still tense, the police state and added that no injuries were reported in the operation.
On Friday night, violent clashes broke out between protesters and counter-protesters in central Örebro before Stram Kurs’ plan to burn a Koran there, which left 12 policemen injured and four police cars set on fire.
Videos and images from chaotic scenes in Örebro showed burning police cars and demonstrators throwing stones and other objects at police in riot gear.
Kim Hild, press spokesperson for the police in southern Sweden, said earlier on Saturday that the police will not revoke the permit for the Landskrona demonstration because the threshold for doing so is very high in Sweden, which values freedom of expression.
The demonstrators’ right to demonstrate and speak is enormous, heavy and it takes an incredible amount for this to be ignored, Hild tells TT.
The demonstration took place on Saturday night in a central park in Malmö where Stram Kurs leader Rasmus Paludan spoke to a few dozen people. A small number of counter-protesters threw stones at protesters and the police were forced to use pepper spray to disperse them.
Paludan himself was reported to have been hit by a stone on the leg, Swedish media state. No serious injuries have been reported, according to police.
Since Thursday, clashes have also been reported in Stockholm and in the cities of Linköping and Norrköping – all places where Stram Kurs either planned or had demonstrations.
Paludan, a Danish lawyer who also has Swedish citizenship, started Stram Kurs, or “Hard Line” in 2017. The party’s website, which runs an anti-immigration and anti-Islam agenda, says “Stram Kurs is the most patriotic political party in Denmark.”
Source: sn.dk