Prime Minister Stefan Löfven has U-turned and admitted that there is a link between migration and Sweden’s rising levels of violent crime.
The Social Democrat leader admitted that there is a connection between crime and migration during a debate in the Swedish Riksdag on Wednesday.
Mr Löfven said: “With a large migration, where we cannot cope with integration, then there is also a greater risk of the kind of problems that we see. It’s crystal clear.”
The prime minister’s statement came in response to questions posed by populist Sweden Democrats (SD) leader Jimmie Åkesson, who slammed the Swedish leader for refusing to admit any connection between migration and crime as recently as earlier this week, Nyheter Idag reports.
“What I want to avoid and what we should be extremely careful about is not to connect crime automatically to skin colour or religion or anything else,” Löfven added.
Åkesson went on to state that his argument was regarding immigration policy and its link to crime, not skin colour or religion. The populist leader said: “I want to hear Stefan Löfven take responsibility and say ‘I was wrong’.”
The admission by Löfven comes after deputy national police chief Mats Löfving sounded the alarm last weekend over the growth and influence of migration-background clan gangs across Sweden.
“These clans come to Sweden solely with the purpose of organising and systematising crime. They work to create power, they have a great capacity for violence, and they want to make money. And they do that with drugs, violent crimes, and extortion,” Löfving had said.
Finland’s broadcaster YLE has speculated that the change in stance could cause a crisis in the Swedish coalition government, as the Social Democrat’s coalition partners, the Greens, are fiercely pro-mass migration.
Earlier this year, Green MP Isabella Lövin rejected the idea of any limits on asylum seeker applications after the centre-right Moderate Party proposed a cap.