Response to interpellation 2024/25:635 on measures against the threat from the far-right

Justitieministern Gunnar Strömmer (M)

Mr. Speaker! Mattias Vepsä has asked me whether I and the government are taking the fight against the right-wing extremism seriously and how I and the government intend to act to guarantee the safety of the association life.

I share Mattias Vepsäs' view that right-wing extremism constitutes a real threat. But the threat from violent extremism comes from several directions. According to the Swedish Defence Union's National Centre for Terrorist Threat Assessment, the primary threat of a terrorist attack against Sweden during 2025 will likely come from a lone actor acting out of a violent Islamist or right-wing extremist motive. Looking over a slightly longer period – and we need to do that to be able to prepare for the future – the threat from violent extremism also comes from the autonomous violent left. We must have the breadth and long-term perspective to handle all these threats simultaneously.

As stated in the government's national strategy against violent extremism and terrorism (skr. 2023/24:56), society needs to mobilize to strengthen resilience among children and young people. Professionals within, among others, school, leisure activities, and social services need to both have access to knowledge about the violent extremist propaganda spread in digital environments and have access to the right tools to be able to prevent hate and threats, violent extremism, and terrorism.

In this context, I want to point out Center against Violence-promoting Extremism, CVE, at the Crime Prevention Council, which fulfills a very important function in providing tailored support to local actors and contributing to higher efficiency in the preventive measures.

The Government has given a mandate to the Crime Prevention Council – or CVE – the Swedish Security Service, the Swedish Police Authority, and the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency to take measures to incorporate the national strategy into their operations, with the aim that it should achieve full impact at national, regional, and local levels and, above all, be able to function as an effective tool in practical work.

The government has also tasked the authorities included in the Cooperation Council against Terrorism with a mandate to develop and intensify the work against terrorism and violent extremism in order to strengthen Sweden's security. The authorities shall intensify their cooperation, and the Swedish Security Service shall coordinate the long-term development of this work.

It is very central that sports and association life are safe and secure for everyone. The Police Authority and the Swedish Sports Confederation have had a jointly developed agreement on cooperation since 2018, and there is a close and regular interaction between the parties. Recently, the government decided on a new permanent grant of 10 million kronor per year to the Swedish Sports Confederation. The purpose is to strengthen sports' resilience against sports-related crime, not least that targeted at young athletes.

The Government views with the utmost seriousness the threats coming from various violence-promoting extremist environments. We are closely following the developments and are continuously considering new measures and interventions.

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Mattias Vepsä (S)

Mr. Speaker! I thank Gunnar Strömmer for the answer.

I have asked a question about the government's work to combat right-wing extremism, or rather whether the government takes the fight against right-wing extremism seriously. I would like to divide the debate into two parts.

During the Easter weekend, Nazi banners were hung over Essingeleden, which cuts straight through Stockholm. They were three large banners that Nazis had hung up to celebrate Adolf Hitler's birthday. Part of my question concerned how the incident was downplayed and relativized by a Moderate Member of Parliament, Lars Beckman, who wrote: "Have the Palestinians put them up?"

This measure is, I believe, an expression of a radicalization in online environments where the political climate becomes poisoned by a polarization. People try in different ways to create attention or alternatively direct mistrust towards one another. In this case, it was probably a tasteless way to get attention.

Part of what we know about extreme environments is that people oxygenate each other. Extremists on the right and left sides in Islamist and far-right circles oxygenate each other. This polarization and the fierce debate climate cause extremism to grow. Against this background, the moderate Member of Parliament's actions were increasingly anything but smart.

I and the Minister for Justice have during this parliamentary term had several debates about members of Parliament who have behaved in a way that has actually whipped up the atmosphere and, in my opinion, contributed both to the image of Sweden being tarnished and to the threat against individuals, against the parliamentary system and against Sweden having increased. It is a development that we all naturally need to distance ourselves from.

Before we discuss the issue at hand – what the government intends to do to support association life – I would like to bring up one more matter.

During the same period, we saw how Nazis stormed a grandstand in Aspudden during a football match in a lower division. They took over the grandstand and frightened children and young people who were nearby, and everyone who had gone to watch football and support their local team.

We cannot have a situation where right-wing extremists can hijack sports stands or hang up banners on Essingeleden however they please.

Mr. Speaker! I wanted to take the opportunity to mention this, as the incident with the Nazi flags and what Lars Beckman did was considered by the Moderates in Gävleborg to be a pointed way of commenting on the antisemitic currents that exist.

According to SKMA, a clear position is required from here in the Riksdag. It is argued that this was not a pointed contribution in the debate on hostility, but it clearly aimed to fuel mistrust and hostility towards Palestinians because they are Palestinians. Through what happened with Beckman, the problems with Nazism and antisemitism are being instrumentalized. Lars Beckman did not care about how this hatred affects others. His comment was unacceptable and is something one must distance oneself from.

There is a request that central Moderate representatives take a stand against this. Is the Minister for Justice ready to take a stand against this behavior?

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TALMANNEN

I remind that the debate is about the Minister of Justice's exercise of office.

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Justitieministern Gunnar Strömmer (M)

Mr. Speaker! The government's starting point in the work is crystal clear. We have prioritized the work not only against organized crime but also against the extremist, violence-seeking environment, regardless of whether it is right-wing extremist or left-wing extremist or whether it is driven primarily by Islamist convictions.

A very important experience is that extremist environments have a tendency to reinforce each other, which Mattias Vepsä quite rightly says. It is a reality that the terror threat primarily comes from the violence-seeking Islamist environment. Therefore, it is important to ensure that our authorities also see what dynamics this creates in relation to other extremist environments, and our authorities do that.

This applies, of course, to the Swedish Security Service (Säkerhetspolisen) but also to the interaction that occurs between the Police Authority and the Swedish Security Service in this area. It is also a central part of the mission that the Center against violent extremism has. I want to remind that it is a very important part of their work.

Over a longer period of time, we know that the extremist environment varies in terms of political focal points. In recent years, the threat has not primarily come from the violent, extremist, autonomous left-wing environment. But if we extend the time perspective backwards, we know that it is a threat that we must continuously monitor. To look at all extremist environments and combat them with full force is the starting point for this work.

Regarding the relationship with association life and the sports movement, we can very rightly see that different environments – extreme ones and, for that matter, those that have a conflict with organized crime – use, for example, sports and association life for their recruitment or as a platform to manifest their messages.

I recently received an investigation concerning safer sports events. Although the origin of it primarily concerns other incidents in connection with large sporting events, this is included as an important component. The various measures proposed there naturally also target this issue.

I can therefore assure Mattias Vepsä that the government, in its work, takes these problems very seriously and also drives these issues forward very methodically and purposefully regarding both governance and resource allocation, and also in other ways.

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Mattias Vepsä (S)

Mr. Speaker! Thank you, Minister of Justice, for the answer!

It is clear that we can have a discussion about individual members' behavior on social media, outside of the chamber. I think it would be appropriate for the Minister for Justice, as a representative of Moderaterna, to also clearly signal a distancing when it comes to how one expresses oneself in the political debate. It is clear that the members who represent the government parties in here are part of the government base. It is important that we both contribute to maintaining a properly considered tone in the debate and help each other in the important fight against extremism and do not participate in the polarizing conversation.

Enough about this. I would like to return to the second part of the interpellation, which was addressed in both the answer and the subsequent post. It concerns how the government supports the work to ensure that our association life can become more resilient.

Firstly, I think it is remarkable that the government has made such large cuts to folkbildningen (popular education). Folkbildningen is a way to oxygenate and strengthen association life broadly. We see how two out of ten studieförbund (study associations) have had to shut down. We see how more and more associations are alerting that it is difficult to find meeting premises or to carry out all the study circles, courses, and leadership trainings required to strengthen the infrastructure of association life, which I believe is a key to strengthening the democratic dialogue – our democratic counterforce to anti-democratic organizations.

When it comes to the sports' study associations, they are so far spared from these cuts. I know they are happy that they have managed to keep their funds. I hope that the government stands up against the forces in the form of the Sweden Democrats, which I know are close to the government, who usually say that folk education is not part of a social protection but rather socially divisive. I hope in this situation that the sports and Sisu can keep their funds because we now see how the far-right have approached just the sports. It is the first plea to the Minister of Justice: to stand up for folk education and the voluntary organizations' opportunity to organize themselves.

Another question I have is whether the Minister for Justice and the Government consider that, in addition to the strategies concerning cooperation – that the police, CVE, the municipalities, and RF, in this case, shall increase their cooperation – there are reasons to proceed and see if there are more concrete things to do. I know, for example, that when it comes to the problem with activity clubs, which I mention in my question, it can be individual private persons who rent facilities from the municipalities, but it can be a problem to know and to perform background checks. The police or other authorities may hold crucial information that municipalities and administrations may need in order to be able to perform proper background checks or, for that part, introduce, for example, ID checks – build systems that make it easier for municipalities, sports associations, and community life to find out who it is that is renting a premises. That is part of this question. There are, therefore, reasons to proceed here.

The Social Democrats allocated an extra 40 million to CVE just to strengthen the work and the fight against extremism broadly. We also heard that the minister read out some initiatives, such as 10 million to RF. This is good – here we agree. Resources were needed. But is there reason to also see what we can do concretely?

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Justitieministern Gunnar Strömmer (M)

Mr. Speaker! It is clear that popular education has an extraordinarily central function in our society, also in this area. I would perhaps like to add an aspect regarding popular education and radicalization. A very important reason behind a tightening of a good part of the funding of popular education has also been that public resources have evidently, by far too high a degree, gone towards financing non-profit contexts that are instead used as a platform and base for recruitment and radicalization, not least among young people.

I think it is incredibly important that when it comes to the issues we are now discussing, whether it concerns left-wing extremism, violence-promoting Islamism, or right-wing extremism, it is taken to heart that it is absolutely central to ensure that it does not leak like a sieve, as it has done to an all too great extent historically. We must have a strict prior control and follow-up of how that type of funding for public education is used so that it does not, on the contrary, nourish the extremism that we have a very strong societal interest in countering.

When it comes to the funding of the sports movement and its popular education, it is not just a matter of the funds being intact. As I mentioned, we have increased the funds for the work to increase resilience against organized crime, regardless of whether it engages in other crimes than ideologically or religiously motivated extremism, but naturally also that type of work. I think that is very important.

I also mentioned the investigation that I received recently, which concerns safer sporting events. A long series of the proposals also aim at the crime that we are talking about now. It will be very important to carry this out moving forward.

I finally want to bring up this issue regarding secrecy and the possibility of conducting more efficient background checks. It was also raised in a previous interpellation debate here. It is very important that when we remove secrecy barriers, we do so in both directions. We are doing that now, gladly enough, by ensuring that this autumn we will have a provision in the secrecy legislation in place that implies a general possibility to break secrecy, that is, in both directions. It is clear that an important part of this involves that municipalities, not least, and others – perhaps regions – shall also be able to access, for example, information from law enforcement in order to be able to make more informed decisions, regardless of whether it concerns local rent, procurements, placements of children, or whatever it may be.

It is quite true – the need is great. Change is finally on the way.

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Mattias Vepsä (S)

Mr. Speaker! I turn to the description. I do not know which investigation of the folkbildningen the Minister is leaning on. I have received a somewhat different impression of the underlying material regarding the cutbacks of the studieförbundens activities. There is very little that indicates that historically much money has leaked out – that it has leaked like a sieve – and that it has been a platform for the recruitment of criminals and extremists.

It is clear that we have had problems with folkbildningen – no one is hiding that. But when we talk about parts of society that are leaking like a sieve, one wonders if, by the same logic, we should then close HVB-homes, health centers, and elderly care companies. You discussed welfare crime broadly in the debate here earlier. The common sector is leaking like a sieve; 100–150 billion disappears every year. It is clear that we need to do things there too, with exactly the same rhetoric: shut it down and crack down. We would like to increase both the intensity of that legislation and the possibilities for control, roughly in the same way that people are now reasoning regarding folkbildningen.

I am nevertheless glad that we had a fairly good exchange of views when it comes to supporting associations and municipalities in looking at background checks – to making it possible to see who it is that is behind, for example, the rental of premises to run their activity clubs, that is, the Nazis' new way of recruiting more young men, above all, into extremism.

I welcome that the Minister for Justice also underlines that this fight is important and wishes that we together do everything we can so that we from this chamber send out signals that we do not accept right-wing extremism, left-wing extremism, or whatever it is that emerges, and that we do everything we can to curb that development.

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Justitieministern Gunnar Strömmer (M)

Mr. Speaker! I want to emphasize the importance of popular education in our society and at the same time say that it is extremely central to ensure that taxpayers' money goes specifically to genuine popular education and not to activities that directly or indirectly engage in or promote radicalization or recruitment to extremist environments. I believe there is plenty of evidence – I am happy to return to this – for the insight that our system has been far too lax on that point. I am very pleased that the government is now tightening this.

With that logic, we shall also, just to mention something about other crime that Mattias Vepsä brings up, tighten and strengthen the preliminary control, supervision, and follow-up control of all activities in society that can be utilized by criminal forces. A very large amount of what we are doing now would naturally have liked to be in place ten years ago. Then we would have been in a better position than today. But now it is being done. It will take time to turn the ship around, but I am convinced that we will do it if we are given all opportunities to continue working long-term.

This matter regarding the sports movement was indeed the substantive hook today. Even though a large part of the recruitment of children and young people into extremist environments now takes place in the digital environment, it is important that we realize that it does not mean that recruitment in the physical environment has ceased. This applies both to recruitment into the organized crime's drug markets and recruitment into contexts that are extremist, violence-oriented, and dangerous for the young people who are drawn into them and for our society as a whole.

I am pleased that we have the opportunity to discuss how we can in different ways strengthen the fight against terrorism and violent extremism. Thank you for that!

The interpellations debate was hereby concluded.

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