I need to take time off from writing about the Trump/Musk shredding of the Constitution, their demolition of government services, and the rampant corruption the diabolic duo continually promote. There are articulate, tough-minded, and critical Democratic Party figures like Chris Murphy, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Bernie Sanders, Jamie Raskin, and Elizabeth Warren who have confronted the Trump/Musk juggernaut, as well as other much less well-known government prosecutors and employees who have shown great courage. (Many have resigned or have been arbitrarily fired.) But the well-meaning, flaccid leadership of the Democratic Party has proven ineffective. I still live with a faint hope that a portion of Trump’s base will finally come to understand that he has no interest in their genuine needs, except to exploit their anxieties and prejudices. It is the oligarchs’ reduced taxes and cutbacks in government spending that Trump deeply cares about and serves.
Given the direness of the situation, I have been looking for a national model in Europe that sustains liberal and democratic values. However, most of the countries have seen their democratic and liberal values under threat from the right and are incapable of being nations whose politics are worth emulating. I did think of Sweden, which was once considered a benign social democracy, even a liberal utopia, and one of the most welcoming countries for refugees. It was a country of 10.5 million people known for its stable economy, quality of healthcare and education, and open and progressive society. That reputation for acceptance and tolerance was manifest in 2014 when asylum-seekers started to arrive in large numbers in Sweden and elsewhere in Europe from war-torn areas of the Middle East, particularly Syria, Afghanistan, and Somalia. Sweden registered 81,301 refugees in 2014, but by 2015, that number had doubled to almost 163,000, which moved the political leaders to call for a needed “respite.” Today, 20 percent of Sweden’s population was born outside the country, and of the 2.17 million people born outside of Sweden, the highest number come from Syria. In fact, the heavy influx of migrants from countries with Muslim populations could lead to the election of a radical Islamist party as early as 2026.
Sweden now leads in gangland killings in Europe and has the lowest average age of serious offenders, with children in their low teens being arrested for murder when two decades ago the murder rate was very low. The migrants have created no-go zones where local ethnic clans rule and where first responders will not enter without flak jackets and police escort. In addition, though gun violence was once primarily confined to Sweden’s three largest cities—Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmö—in recent months, smaller towns have increasingly borne the brunt of the violence.
The immigrants’ problems were accentuated by a deterioration in the quality of education that resulted from increasing ethnic disorder and outright violence. The government at first did offer an open door but never created policies that would integrate immigrants into mainstream Swedish culture. So, Sweden’s reputation has fallen from an inspirational welfare state model to a warning example about multiculturalism. Political power has also shifted from the center-left Social Democrats and its coalition partners to the conservative Moderate party and its allies with the support of the ultra-right, ethno-nationalist Sweden Democrats. It has meant much tougher policies on immigrants like defying an old taboo and calling the military to assist the police. Other hardline actions involve an increase of prison sentences for gang members and introduction of special stop-and-frisk zones for police to crack down on crime. I should mention that even under Social Democratic control in 2016, Swedish billionaires doubled their share of wealth, and the share of the poorest fell precipitously. It is impossible today to see Sweden as a political model.
To augment what I have written, I have contacted an old student, who has lived in Sweden for some years, for his perspective on what has occurred there. He wrote:
When I moved here in 2009, far right groups existed but were not yet dangerous. However, I learned about the Sweden Democrats (SD) that because of cuts in healthcare, housing, and education were gaining members. However, the main issues that served their rise were immigration and a message that the Social Democrats(S) were responsible for all social failings. One day a friend told me that ‘It is like Weimar again.’
SD did get into Parliament, not into the Cabinet. The other parties closed SD out of much political activity. I liked that and felt I was in the right country.
Nevertheless, the exclusion was removed a few years later. This only expanded the influence of the Conservatives (Moideraterna, M), who by this time led by the Conservatives. Privatization was going on and SD gained more power on the same old issues. The leader of SD was and is Jimmie Åkesson. About two years ago he helped form a new government after a right-wing victory. Though SD did not enter the Cabinet, they control it by pulling the marionette strings of the new cabinet’s representatives from the three compliant, conservative parties. SD has aligned the cabinet with the European extreme right wing. Their main debt is to Victor Orban’s semi-authoritarian Hungarian government. They are now enforcing a strong deportation and forced remigration policy. Other policies involve a tougher requirement list for citizenship, a critique of restrictions on free speech (hate speech is illegal now), and the enforcement of behavioral codes about ‘defective course of life’. SD wants to use this to create new grounds for retraction of citizenship and for increasing deportation. Sweden has become a country committed to repression.
