“Sweden is in a very serious situation,” the conservative politician said on Wednesday. He referred to the global climate crisis and three parallel crises from his point of view: the internal Swedish security crisis with continued gun crimes, the external security crisis with Russia’s aggressive war against Ukraine and the energy crisis.
The 58-year-old expressed his concern about the deadly gun violence in his country. No other country in the EU has such a serious problem as Sweden in this regard, he said. Abroad, Sweden is generally perceived as peaceful and harmonious.
From the beginning of the year to mid-December, there were 378 gun incidents, resulting in 60 deaths and 104 injuries. By comparison, there were only four deaths in Denmark and Norway and two in Finland. So far this year, as many people have been shot dead in Södertälje near Stockholm as in all of London. Young people in particular are killed and murdered, almost always as part of organized crime gangs and almost always from a foreign background, he said.
Kristersson has been prime minister since mid-October. He then succeeded the social democrat Magdalena Andersson and ruled with a conservative-liberal three-party coalition, which would not achieve its own majority without the right-wing populist Swedish Democrats. That is why the government has entered into cooperation with the right, a first for the Scandinavian EU country. She works closely with the party in parliament, including in the fight against criminals.
(SDA)