In Sweden there were riots and clashes between demonstrators and the police on Easter Sunday. Three people were injured when police fired warning shots. As on Good Friday and Saturday, the protests were prompted by rallies by the Islamophobic party Stram Kurs, which had been approved by the police. The gatherings were permitted, although a Koran was to be burned.
In the city of Norrköpping in the south of the country, according to police, demonstrators attacked security officers on Sunday, who then said they fired warning shots. Three people were apparently injured by ricochets. 13 people were arrested. There were also riots in Linköping.
In the city of Örebro in the south of the country, around 500 people had already gathered on Good Friday to protest against the right, where several police cars had been set on fire and around a dozen police officers had suffered injuries. There were also riots in the capital Stockholm. In some places, stones and Molotov cocktails were thrown at police officers, and cars and garbage cans were set on fire.
After one of the right-wing rallies took place in Malmö on Saturday afternoon, there was a bus on fire on the night of Easter Sunday, on which unknown persons had thrown a burning object. The passengers were able to exit the vehicle in time.
Demonstrators set fire to a police bus in Örebro on Good Friday.
(Photo: Kicki Nilsson/dpa)
Malmo Police Chief Petra Stenkula said it was sad that freedom of expression had become a “passport” for such riots. Luckily there were only a few minor injuries during the night. A 16-year-old was arrested.
The party “Stram Kurs” (Hard Course) was founded in 2017 by the Danish lawyer Rasmus Paludan. Their goals are to ban Islam in Denmark and to expel people who are not ethnic Danes. Paludan, who is said to also have a Swedish passport, plans to run with a Swedish affiliate of the party in the general elections in September.
In 2020, Paludan called for a rally in Berlin, triggering a counter-demonstration and a large-scale police operation. However, none of the ten registered participants came. There was an entry ban against Paludan himself, he had tried twice to come to Germany. Before the rally in Berlin, he had been arrested in Paris, where he wanted to burn a Koran in front of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. Previously, supporters of his party had burned a Koran in Malmo, Sweden. There was already unrest in the city at that time. Paludan had previously been given a two-year entry ban. In Denmark, Paludan was sentenced to three months in prison, among other things, for violating the racism paragraph.