Ok I’m going to ask the question that the article doesn’t address and also the question that will make all the progressive people on here uncomfortable: how does immigration play into this? Does it? Sweden is known for having a high percentage of foreign-born residents, most of them from outside the EU. It is the frequent punching bag of the extreme right for that reason and for its historically progressive policies. A far right that has been making gains there, as elsewhere. Is this an issue? Has Sweden failed to integrate foreigners who are now increasingly involved in the illegal drug trade and ensuing crime or are these unrelated?
hi, i’m a progressive swedish leftist.
what happened was, the centre-right coalition that made the decision to take in immigrants had no integration plan. these people basically got sent off to places where there was already a higher percentage of immigrants, forming a sort of parallel society.
However, this was about ten years ago, after most of these current gang criminals were born.
the main issue is that due to a decision by a left-wing govt in the 90s, school and youth activity budgets are handled at a local level, meaning poorer areas get much lower quality education, and less recreation. it’s a textbook high-criminality recipe.