Thousands in Sweden Rally Against Neo-Nazis

Image by getty images
Thousands of Swedes took to the streets of Stockholm on Sunday in a protest against racism following a neo-Nazi attack on a similar but much smaller rally last weekend, police said.
The protest followed events last weekend when around 30 neo-Nazis attacked another anti-racism rally in the same suburb, Karrtorp, throwing bottles and firecrackers at protesters. Two people were stabbed and 26 neo-Nazis were detained by police.
Sweden, long seen as a bastion of tolerance, has seen a rise in support for the far right as immigration has grown. Anti-immigration party Sweden Democrats has reached around 10 percent in the polls ahead of a parliamentary election next year.
Stockholm was hit by the worst riots in years in May in mainly poor immigrant Stockholm suburbs, with youths throwing rocks at police and setting cars on fire for more than a week.
The violence in one of Europe’s richest capitals shocked a country that prides itself on a reputation for social justice, and fuelled a debate about how Sweden was coping with youth unemployment and the influx of immigrants.
The organizers of Sunday’s demonstration estimated more than 16,000 people took part. The crowd chanted “End racism now” and “No racists on our streets”, and prominent Swedish artists played on a stage set up on a soccer field.
Parts of Karrtorp, which does not have a particularly large migrant population compared to other areas of the city, were sprayed-painted with swastikas and Nazi slogans before last week’s protest.
Smaller anti-racism rallies were held in support at several other Swedish cities on Saturday and Sunday.
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a Passover gift today!
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Most Popular
- 1
News Student protesters being deported are not ‘martyrs and heroes,’ says former antisemitism envoy
- 2
News Who is Alan Garber, the Jewish Harvard president who stood up to Trump over antisemitism?
- 3
Fast Forward Suspected arsonist intended to beat Gov. Josh Shapiro with a sledgehammer, investigators say
- 4
Politics Meet America’s potential first Jewish second family: Josh Shapiro, Lori, and their 4 kids
In Case You Missed It
-
Opinion Why can Harvard stand up to Trump? Because it didn’t give in to pro-Palestinian student protests
-
Culture How an Israeli dance company shaped a Catholic school boy’s life
-
Fast Forward Brooklyn event with Itamar Ben-Gvir cancelled days before Israeli far-right minister’s US trip
-
Culture How Abraham Lincoln in a kippah wound up making a $250,000 deal on ‘Shark Tank’
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.