Minister of Home Affairs Mikael Damberg responded positively yesterday to Moderate Party leader Ulf Kristersson’s top ten list of things he thinks should be done at the government level to combat rising crime (see yesterday’s post). It was time, Damberg opened, to gather round and talk. So far so good. But then, Damberg said that everyone was invited to the party – everyone except the party called the Sweden Democrats.
“Here we go again” commented former Christian Democratic party leader Göran Hägglund in response. “No political issue is important enough to be discussed on its own merits. Instead, the debate is about how to handle SD” he tweeted.
The Christian Democrats, now led by Ebba Busch Thor, were glad of the invite and the reason behind it, but rejected Damberg’s rejection. As did the Moderate Party somewhat later. Via Facebook, Kristersson wrote that one can’t say that you’re getting all the parties together on this issue, and then “exclude the representatives of over 17% of voters – voters who are just as vulnerable and worried about crime as everyone else in Sweden” (expressen.se).
But Damberg is sticking to his guns, so to speak. The Sweden Democrats, he says, have a different set of fundamental values (värdegrunder). They also have, he adds, a very “shallow explanation model” – read: the same explanation for all things. To what might Damberg so coquettishly be referring? Immigration. And yes, it must be said, that no matter how the Sweden Democrats frame something, the real meaning is usually that Sweden’s problems are due to people from other countries, and them being in this country.
The rising crime question is serious to many people though, and Damberg could do worse than allowing SD a chance to be the nazis that he basically thinks they are. But as a science-loving country, it can also be noted that the most wonderful cures can come from the nastiest poisons.