Swedish Justice Minister Morgan Johansson criticised a Polish Member of the European Parliament who suggested Swedes were fleeing to Poland due to mass migration.
Polish MEP Beata Mazurek, a member of the conservative Law and Justice Party (PiS), criticised Sweden’s migration policy, saying: “Assassinations, increased crime, rape, fear, and sharia zones. These are the consequences of multiculturalism and open doors for immigrants. Swedes are fleeing their country to find peace and normality in Poland.”
Johansson responded, saying that the problem was not Swedes going to Poland but was, instead, Polish criminals coming to Sweden and said that between 2017 and 2018 around three times the number of Poles moved to Sweden than vice versa.
“Something we actually have problems with is foreign theft gangs, not least from Poland. Foreign gangs are behind almost half of all burglaries in Sweden and 90 per cent of all thefts of cars, boat engines, and agricultural machinery. If the Honourable Member can do something about it, I would be grateful,” Johansson told Aftonbladet.
The row comes after former Swedish resident Denis Lisov fled the country to Poland to seek asylum with his daughters in April when they were put in a foster home with a Muslim family 186 miles away from where Lisov lived.
Last month, a Warsaw court ruled that the Russian national would be allowed to remain in Poland despite Sweden putting out a European arrest warrant for him.
“The court decided that the European arrest warrant issued by the Swedish authorities violates the freedoms and human rights of citizen Denis Lisov,” the judge in the case said.
Sweden has come into conflict with Poland’s ally Hungary in recent years, as well.
Earlier this year, the two nations clashed after Swedish Minister of Social Security Annika Strandhäll labelled Hungary’s pro-family policies as being similar to Nazi Germany.
“What is happening in Hungary is alarming. Now Orbán wants more ‘genuine’ Hungarian children to be born. The policy reeks of the 30s. A right-wing populist you need smokescreens for what this type of policy does to the independence women have been struggling for,” she said.
Hungarian Deputy Prime Minister Zsolt Semjén replied to the comment labelling the minister a “poor sick creature”.