The Swedish Government may be taking advantage of this Monday’s attack in Brussels, where two Swedish citizens were shot dead, to reinforce an anti-immigration discourse. This is one of the readings that researcher Alberto Cunha makes of the words of the Swedish prime minister.
Ulf Kristersson, who announced this Tuesday that he will travel to Brussels on Wednesday to pay tribute to the victims of the attack, stated that never in recent history has Sweden been so threatened.
The researcher at the Portuguese Institute of International Relations, who is completing his doctorate in European Studies at King’s College London, questioned by TSFhighlights that the head of the Executive is already “trying” to reinforce a policy unfavorable to immigration “since he came to power.”
“There is a great tradition of hospitality in Sweden, so these issues are not easy for the new Government to address, but, as is often the case in politics, this attack will give another argument for the new Government to change this policy.”, explains, adding that the anti-immigration speech was decisive for Ulf Kristersson’s victory in the legislative elections a year ago.
“This was one of the electoral issues. Not only that, there are always several issues in an election – also always the economic issue – but this was one of the big issues,” he considers.
Alberto Cunha also points out that the Swedish State, during the crisis of 2015 and 2016, was the one that received the most refugees and immigrants, taking into account the percentage of the population, “even more than Germany.”
“Everyone remembers the chancellor’s action [Angela] Merkel, which was undeniable, but Sweden really received a huge percentage, considering it has a population equivalent to Portugal. She confesses that I do not have the figures for those who entered in 2015/2016, but at the moment there is already a much larger Middle Eastern diaspora community in Sweden than would be expected from a country that is geographically very far away. from the Middle East,” she says.
Ulf Kristersson came to power in October 2022, with the votes of the far-right Swedish Democrats party, and the researcher explains that, at the time of the elections, this new Government “already had a slightly different attitude” towards immigration policy .
“Sweden has always maintained – especially with the previous left-wing government – the position that there should be a mandatory distribution of quotas of these refugees among other EU countries. Now, this new government already had a slightly different attitude towards this policy and “This attack will give one more argument for Sweden to have a less pro-immigration position than it usually has in the EU, which could have European implications,” he warns.
The perpetrator of the attack, identified as Abdesalem Lassoued, a 45-year-old Tunisian, was killed by police early today in a cafe in Brussels.
The suspect was illegally in Belgium, where he unsuccessfully sought asylum in 2019, and was identified by the police for several crimes, but not for violent extremism, Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo said this morning.
According to sources from the Italian news agency Ansa, the suspect landed on the island of Lampedusa in a small boat in 2011.
Source: TSF
