{"id":14377,"date":"2018-09-08T20:28:14","date_gmt":"2018-09-08T20:28:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=14377"},"modified":"2018-09-08T20:28:14","modified_gmt":"2018-09-08T20:28:14","slug":"sweden-election-pm-slams-far-right-leaders-remarks-on-migrants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=14377","title":{"rendered":"Sweden election: PM slams far-right leader’s remarks on migrants"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

As political parties in Sweden<\/a>\u00a0make their last pitches ahead of Sunday’s elections<\/a>,\u00a0Prime Minister\u00a0Stefan Lofven has denounced a far-right party as racist and called it a threat to the nation’s European values.<\/p>\n

“We are not going to retreat one millimetre in the face of hatred and extremism wherever it shows itself,” Lofven said on Saturday.<\/p>\n

“Again and again and again, they show their Nazi and racist roots and they are trying to destroy the EU at a time when we need that cooperation the most.”<\/p>\n

Lofven’s comments were in response to remarks by the main far-right candidate who said migrants themselves are to blame for the difficulties they face in finding employment in the Scandinavian country.<\/p>\n

During a heated TV debate on Friday, <\/span>Jimmie Akesson, leader of the Sweden Democrats (SD), said foreigners – many of whom are refugees – are unemployed “because they’re not Swedish. They can’t adjust to Sweden, and it’s hard for them to get a job.”<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The comments caused a stir in Sweden, with even the broadcaster that aired the debate, SVT, calling them “degrading and against the democratic mandate of public broadcasting”.<\/p>\n

Founded in 1988, the SD\u00a0<\/span>was a white nationalist movement through much of the early 1990s. It has since sought to soften its public image to that of a right-wing nationalist party. Their platform has been called anti-immigrant and anti-European Union.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Landmark election<\/h2>\n

Sunday’s parliamentary vote will be Sweden’s first since the government in 2015 allowed 163,000 migrants and refugees into the country of 10 million. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Though far less than the 890,000 refugees Germany took in that year, it was the most per capita of any European nation.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The SD won 13 percent of the vote in 2014, but recent opinion polls show they could secure as much as 20 percent this time around.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Though it would not be enough to form a government,\u00a0a strong show of support would give more power to the SD to pressure the next administration.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Lofven<\/span><\/span>\u00a0said during the debate that he would not work with the far-right party and accused some of his challengers of being open to doing so.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Ulf\u00a0<\/span>Kristersson<\/span><\/span>, leader of the Moderate Party, stressed the importance of integrating newcomers.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

“We can’t have a situation when you come to Sweden and not integrate in society,” he told voters. “Integration is one of the biggest questions for the future in Sweden.”<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Carl Bildt, a former prime minister from the Moderate Party, said the far-right’s newfound popularity should be taken seriously, while the societal concerns that aided their ascent should be dealt with.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Swedish leaders should “address the concerns that are there, address the anti-European sentiments they are expressing as well, in order to be more resilient as a society against these sorts of trends in the future,” Bildt said.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\n SOURCE: Al Jazeera and news agencies<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As political parties in Sweden\u00a0make their last pitches ahead of Sunday’s elections,\u00a0Prime Minister\u00a0Stefan Lofven has denounced a far-right party as racist and called it a threat to the nation’s European values. “We are not going to retreat one millimetre in the face of hatred and extremism wherever it shows itself,” Lofven said on Saturday. “Again…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":14378,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14377","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14377","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14377"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14377\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14378"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}