The new Swedish 2021 budget has been revealed, with the government looking to spend more on foreign aid than on the country’s police force despite violent gang crime remaining a problem.
The budget, which will see the government borrow 67 billion Swedish kronor (SEK) (£5.9 billion/$7.5 billion), will see 52 billion SEK set aside for foreign aid, which is around five per cent of the total national budget. While a few billion will go towards immigration, the rest, approximately 46.8 billion, will go directly overseas.
The Swedish police authority, meanwhile, will see 30.5 billion SEK in the new budget. The business community will get 15 billion and rural and agricultural areas are set to receive 23 billion, Nyheter Idag reports.
The new budget comes as Sweden continues to struggle with the growing problem of gang-related violence in the form of shootings and explosive attacks that have plagued the country for several years.
Earlier this month, deputy national police chief Mats Löfving directly linked the rise in gang crime to mass migration, when describing the structures of migrant criminal clans.
“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 said.
Swedish prime minister Stefan Löfven initially dismissed any links between migration and crime but just days later made a U-turn while being questioned in the Swedish parliament. He 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.”
This year, Sweden is projected to have a budget deficit of around 296 billion SEK (£26 billion/$33.2 billion) due to costs dealing with the effects of the outbreak of the Wuhan virus.
Sweden’s national debt is also set to increase from 35 per cent of GDP to 42 per cent.