Uppsala was once known for having Scandinavia’s oldest university, but today Sweden’s fourth-largest city is the scene of a nationwide gang war. Mayor Erik Pelling is desperately looking for a way out.
53 dead last year, a shooting every day: a gang war is raging in Sweden. The university town Uppsala, about an hour’s drive north of Stockholm, is considered a center of violence. Innocent people have also died here. The Social Democratic mayor Erik Pelling welcomes people to a conference hotel for a discussion; he is currently attending a conference on housing construction – another problem. Pelling asks for a sober meeting room. He speaks with great seriousness and, it sounds like, sometimes with great concern.