Swedish minister Anders Ygeman
pic: sverigesradio.se
Things got a little prickly after the Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg mentioned something along the lines of “you sure hear a lot of Swedish at those far-right extremist marches here in Norway.” Anders Ygeman, Minister for Energy and Digital Development and also Stefan Lofven’s right hand man, had his grade-school level response ready – basically “Oh yeah? Well, right back at you” ().
Ok, to be more exact, he said “sure, yes to Norwegian-Swedish cooperation, but when you’re talking about a government that works with the [far-right] Progress Party (Fremskrittspartiet), and who has twice appointed Sylvi Listhaug as minister, maybe you should look in the mirror before looking over the border.”
It actually sounds a little cleverer in English, but is it really a good idea to lash out at your closest neighbour and call them names? It’s debatable. Sylvi Listhaug is pretty deplorable, no question, but Ygeman’s outburst was surprisingly puerile. Instead of taking the debate in an adult manner and actually being receptive to joining forces, he basically poked them with a stick. That isn’t the way to make friends and influence people. Maybe he had a bad day. We all have them, but we all aren’t so near to being Swedish prime minister, so not same-same.
More and better Swedish-Norwegian cooperation on meeting far-right extremism would be a great thing. Particularly because – guess who’s already cooperating? Swedish and Norwegian far-right extremists.