Rasmus Paludan, who attracted international attention and jeopardised Sweden’s NATO bid by burning the Quran in front of the Turkish Embassy in Stockholm, declared his intention, as a dual Swedish-Danish citizen, to join the second-largest party, the strong far-right Sweden Democrats.
Paludan leads the far-right Danish party Stram Kurs which missed the 2% threshold in the last Danish elections and is known for his anti-Muslim provocations in the country.
Though his recent public burning of the Quran resulted in Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan firmly opposing Sweden’s NATO membership bid, Paludan, a dual Swedish-Danish citizen, has now declared his intentions to enter Swedish national politics.
“I would like to be a member of the Sweden Democrats,” he told Aftonbladet on Thursday, adding that he wishes to “change the party from within.”
Following the last Swedish elections in September, the Sweden Democrats were left out of the government in exchange for getting large parts of its hard-line migration policy through. Its support is vital for the ruling centre-right coalition composed of the Moderate party, the Christian Democrats and the Liberals, as it obtained 20% of the votes, making it Sweden’s second-largest party.
Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson of the Moderate Party expressed his worries about the international developments that followed the Quran burnings.
“It is clear that this is not good for Sweden’s relations with other parts of the world,” Kristersson said, adding that “this risks being very bad for Swedish companies operating” abroad.
Paludan’s Quran burning already ignited tensions in the Muslim world, and demonstrations took place in countries like Turkey and Indonesia to protest against what is seen as an attack on Islam.
Al-Azhar University in Cairo – the Sunni world’s foremost religious institution – is urging Muslims worldwide to boycott Sweden.
Foreign Minister Tobias Billström, also a Moderate, clarified that his government and himself do not necessarily support the views expressed by Paludan.
(Charles Szumski | EURACTIV.com)
Source: euractiv.com
