The “Swedes must be integrated into the new Sweden,” proclaimed social engineer Mona Sahlin in 2001; “the old Sweden is never coming back.” While it sure has taken long enough, this culturally suicidal spirit is now being rejected by a growing number of Swedes, who see their nation’s first-in-Europe migration rate creating a “new Sweden” before their very eyes. This, combined with a new skepticism about the old-Sweden norm of high taxation, has vaulted the anti-migration Sweden Democrats to heretofore unseen prominence.
As Reuters reports using very biased language (e.g., “far right”):
A surge in gang violence has stirred anti-immigration sentiment before an election in Sweden, putting a far-right party on course for big gains in one of Europe’s most liberal countries.
Dozens of people have been killed in the past two years in attacks in the capital Stockholm and other big cities by gangs that are mostly from run-down suburbs dominated by immigrants.
In the latest bloodshed, three men were shot dead and three were wounded outside an internet cafe in the city of Malmö on June 18. A fourth man was shot dead days later and another man survived because he was wearing a bullet-proof vest.
With public calls growing for tougher policies on crime and immigration, support has risen for the Sweden Democrats [SD], a party … that wants to freeze immigration and to hold a referendum on Sweden’s membership of the European Union.
Their worried mainstream rivals have started moving to the right on crime and immigration to try to counter the Sweden Democrats’ threat in the Sept. 9 election. But so far, they are playing into the hands of the far-right. [Video below about the SD’s rise]
Of course, Reuters only views the SD as “far right” because it’s far-left (and dishonest), for a dwarf seems a giant in a land of Lilliputians. Note that even “conservative” parties in Europe, where the political spectrum is well “left” of ours, generally hold what we call liberal positions; they tend to be pro-prenatal infanticide, pro-faux marriage, pro-homosexual “rights” (privileges, really), and socially “progressive” in general.
Yet the above reportage may represent actual progress, as even Reuters is now admitting there’s a surge in crime in “suburbs dominated by immigrants” (read: Muslims), a reality mainstream media have generally tried to suppress.
A secondary factor that may be driving people away from the Swedish establishment (the far-left Social Democrats currently wield power) is that now even some Swedes, a notoriously statist bunch, are questioning their welfare state. This is especially striking given that their country is one “whose economy is enjoying its longest period of growth in at least four decades and whose finances are flourishing. Sweden is a nation in surplus and the government has still been raising taxes, with the top marginal rate now reaching 60 percent,” reports Bloomberg.
Nonetheless, Bloomberg continues, the “proportion of respondents who thought taxes were too high jumped to 45 percent, up from just 27 percent in 2014.” This phenomenon may have even more to do with the rising migrant tide than rising taxes, however, as the former has both a practical and psychological effect.
First, many Swedes no longer see the same bang for their buck, with “complaints about education and pregnant mothers even being turned away from maternity wards due to a lack of capacity. The number of people waiting longer than 90 days for an operation or specialist treatment has tripled over the past four years,” Bloomberg also informs.
Why is this happening? That Sweden, whose population was under 10 million, has absorbed 600,000 migrants during the last five years may be a clue. Given the newcomers’ higher birthrates, for instance, we can theorize about who’s filling the maternity wards.
Second, when Sweden was a homogeneous land — one big national “family” — welfare-state initiatives could have been viewed as a case of helping your family. But seeing largely unemployed, often unappreciative and aggressive migrants on the taxpayer dole must have a psychological effect.
Related to this, Sweden has been characterized by groupthink, where citizens were reluctant to be controversial, rock the boat, and perhaps endure scorn and ostracism. But seeing massive numbers of migrants whose thoughts are radically different and who won’t “go with the flow” also should have an effect. Rupture the social cohesion via balkanization and break the groupthink ice (rather thick with the long Swedish winters!), and people may stop suppressing, and repressing, their dissent.
But the biggest factor is what’s obviously evoking fear and anger: Migrant crime, no-go zones — Muslim-dominated areas where Sharia partially supplants civil law and where authorities are reluctant to tread — and the persecution of native anti-immigrationist Swedes who complain. Below is an excellent CBN news segment about this “Soviet Sweden.”
The bottom line is that the scope and rapidity of the Muslim influx has awakened many in Europe — the establishment just didn’t boil the frog slowly enough. And now even normally supine Sweden is beginning to simmer with resentment.
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