Sweden’s Prime Minister Stefan Lofven has announced he is prepared to send the army onto the streets of Sweden if that’s what it takes to end the wave of gang violence in the country.
Speaking to the TT news agency, Lofven said: “It would not be my first option to bring in the military, but I am prepared to do whatever is necessary to make sure that serious, organised crime is stamped out.”
His announcement comes just days after four people were shot dead and a man was killed after picking up a hand grenade at a Stockholm train station.
Swedish TV claim that more than 300 people were shot in 2016 in gang-related incidents, which is shockingly high for a country with such a small population.
Jimmie Akesson, Leader of the Swedish Democrats, said in Parliment that “People are shot to death in pizza restaurants, people are killed by hand grenades they find on the street…This is the new Sweden; the new, exciting dynamic, multicultural paradise that so many here in this assembly … have fought to create for so many years.”
Law and order is likely to be a huge issue in September’s Parliamentary elections.