Sweden’s former PM open to using military to tackle gang violence

Magdalena Andersson, Sweden’s former prime minister and leader of the opposition Social Democrats, is open to using the military to combat gang violence, she said on Thursday, as the number of gang-related deaths in the country continues to rise.

After another night of serious violence, three people died in two shootings and one explosion in Stockholm and Uppsala, setting a grim record. In September alone, 11 people were killed in shootings, making it the deadliest month for gun violence in almost four years.

“This is a deeply tragic development. I understand that people feel both anger, fear and sadness about where we are,” Swedish Justice Minister Gunnar Strömmer told the press on Thursday. “The last 24 hours are beyond the worst imaginable scenario in an open, free and decent society,” he added.

The current right-wing government must thus “look beyond the coalition agreement and start acting decisively”, said Andersson who also said Police should be able to call for the help of the armed forces.

“Tasks currently carried out by the police could be carried out by the military. The military also has technical expertise that could be useful,” Andersson told Aftonbladet.

Ardalan Shekarabi, the party’s legal spokesman, suggested that the police could be relieved of some of their responsibilities.

While the army can currently help with transportation, Shekarabi suggested that this could be expanded to include the military taking over the security of buildings of importance to Sweden, a role currently performed by the police and which has been expanded due to the increased terrorist threat in the country.

Shekarabi believes that the necessary legal changes could be implemented very quickly, pointing to the pandemic when parties quickly agreed to the necessary legislative changes.

Asked if his party, which was in power for eight years before the current government, bore any responsibility for the current wave of violence, Shekarabi admitted that it did.

“I believe that we, like all other parties and societal actors, must engage in self-reflection given the situation we find ourselves in today”, he said, adding that the Social Democrats did not invest enough energy and resources in stopping new gang recruitments.

The idea of using the military to fight gang crime is not new in Sweden. When the issue was raised during the previous Social Democratic government in 2018, then-prime minister Stefan Löfven did not rule out the option.

However, the proposal was rejected by Morgan Johansson, the justice minister at the time who argued that ‘the police have unique expertise in dealing with gang crime that the military does not have’.

(Charles Szumski | Euractiv.com)