Southern Sweden saw another night of unrest on Saturday over plans by an anti-Islamic far-right political party to burn the Koran, among other things.
Police said up to 100 mostly young people threw stones, set fire to cars, tires and trash cans and erected a barrier fence in the town of Landskrona after authorities moved a demonstration planned there by the Danish party Stram Kurs in the nearby town of Malmö. about 45 km (27 miles) south.
Police have detained a man who crashed his car into a blockade near a demonstration in Malmö. Photo: Tt News Agency / Reuters
The situation in Landskrona calmed down by the end of Saturday, but remained tense, police said, adding that no one was injured in the action.
Kim Hild, a police spokeswoman in southern Sweden, said earlier on Saturday that police would not revoke permission for the Landskrona demonstration, organized by the Stram Kurs party, because the threshold for freedom of speech was very high in Sweden.
The right of protesters to “demonstrate and speak weighs enormously, heavily, and an incredible amount is needed to ignore this,” Hild told the Swedish news agency TT.
Police riot police are seen near burning rubbish bins after a demonstration organized by Rasmus Paludan in Malmö. Photo: Tt News Agency / Reuters
Clashes have been reported since Thursday in both Stockholm and the cities of Linköping and Norrkoping, all places where Stram Kurs has either planned or demonstrated.
Fierce clashes broke out in the central city of Orebro on Friday night between protesters and counter-protesters before Stram Course’s plan to burn the Koran there, leaving 12 police officers injured and four police cars on fire.
Videos and photos from the chaotic scenes in Orebro show burning police cars and protesters throwing stones and other objects at police in riot gear.
At a rally in Malmö Central Park on Saturday, Stram Kurs leader Rasmus Paludan addressed several dozen people. A small number of counter-protesters hurled stones at protesters, and police were forced to use pepper spray to disperse them.
Paludan himself was reportedly hit in the leg with a stone, Swedish media reported. There were no reports of serious injuries, according to police.
Paludan, a Danish lawyer who also has Swedish citizenship, created Stram Kurs, or Hard Line, in 2017. He is guided by an anti-immigration and anti-Islamic program.
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