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02/21/2017 02:41 PM
Two leading Swedish politicians have a message for President Trump’s critics: He’s right.
Per Jimmie Akesson and Mattias Karlsson, both leaders of the Sweden Democrats, penned a Wall Street Journal op-ed on Wednesday supporting Trump’s characterization of a Muslim immigrant-led crime crisis in Sweden.
“Mr. Trump did not exaggerate Sweden’s current problems,” Akesson and Karlsson wrote. “If anything, he understated them.”
“Mr. Trump did not exaggerate Sweden’s current problems. If anything, he understated them.”
- Per Jimmie Akesson and Mattias Karlsson, in Wall Street Journal op-ed
Trump was ridiculed by many after he gave a speech Saturday citing Sweden among a list of European countries affected by the scourge of Islamic terror. Referring to the massive number of Middle Eastern refugees that have poured into the country, Trump said Sweden was “having problems like they never thought possible.” Some Swedish politicians openly derided Trump’s portrayal of the country – but riots in a heavily immigrant suburb of Stockholm on Monday evening put an end to most of the mockery.
Overnight riots in Stockholm suburb
Swedish police were investigating a riot that broke out overnight in a predominantly immigrant suburb in Stockholm after officers arrested a suspect on drug charges.
“Riots and social unrest have become a part of everyday life,” Akesson and Karlsson wrote. “Police officers, firefighters and ambulance personnel are regularly attacked. Serious riots in 2013, involving many suburbs with large immigrant populations, lasted for almost a week. Gang violence is booming. Despite very strict firearms laws, gun violence is five times as common in Sweden, in total, as in the capital cities of our three Nordic neighbors combined.”
They added: “Anti-Semitism has risen. Jews in Malmo are threatened, harassed and assaulted in the streets. Many have left the city, becoming internal refugees in their country of birth.”
The Sweden Democrats duo ended the op-ed with a warning for the United States.
“For the sake of the American people,” Akesson and Karlsson wrote, “with whom we share so many strong historical and cultural ties, we can only hope that the leaders in Washington won’t make the same mistakes that our socialist and liberal politicians did.”
