Neo-Nazi March On Yom Kippur Turns Violent In Sweden
Image by Getty Images
More than 30 people were arrested on Saturday as both neo-Nazis and anti-fascists clashed with police during a march by the extreme right-wing Nordic Resistance Movement (NMR) on Yom Kippur in the Swedish city of Gothenburg, police said.
The NMR gathered hundreds of people for the march, many armed with shields and helmets, while many thousands of counter-protestors also hit the streets of Gothenburg.
Membership in Nazi organizations is not illegal in Sweden and the NMR had a permit from the police to march.
Swedish police said on their website that 35 people had been arrested during the day. At least two people were injured, including one police officer who broke his arm.
“Given the intent that many had here today, the scenario could have been much worse,” commanding officer Emilie Kullmyr told daily Dagens Nyheter.
The neo-Nazi march was halted in the early afternoon, before it reached its designated starting point, after a clash with the police. Police put up a ring around the NMR demonstrators to keep them apart from anti-fascists.
A judge ordered the march rerouted away from the city’s main synagogue.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
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..
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
