Liberal Sweden Loses its Innocence

 By Henry Srebrnik, [Moncton, NB] Times & Transcript

European countries are currently undergoing a series of political and social upheavals, and liberal Sweden is no exception. Anti-immigrant feeling, once almost unthinkable, has become common.

Sweden has accepted a very large number of immigrants, especially from the Middle East and Africa. In 2015, the country admitted received 163,000 migrants -- about 1.6 per cent of Sweden’s population of 10 million.

They overwhelmed the capacity of both government and civil society organizations. And they were disproportionately responsible for violent crimes.

Swedish police don’t register criminal suspects according to ethnicity, but prosecutors say many men facing trial have non-Swedish backgrounds, and that has been used as ammunition by anti-immigration groups.

A report released this year showed that Sweden in the last two decades has gone from having one of the lowest rates of gun violence in Europe to one of the highest.

Gangs of men torched cars with assembly-line precision in Sweden’s second-largest city, Gothenburg, last August, in what Prime Minister Stefan Lofven, a Social Democrat, described as “extremely organized” attacks. Within hours, more than 80 vehicles were in flames. In late September, 20 people were hurt in a suspicious explosion and fire at an apartment building there.

Sweden’s Jewish community has faced increased antisemitic violence, particularly in Malmo, the country’s third largest city, where immigrants constitute one-third of the population, and many have left as a result.

“Many students who have a background in the Middle East, and in several Muslim countries, have notions of Jews that are not at all compatible with democratic values,” Anders Rubin, a school council member from 2013 to 2018, told the newspaper Sydsvenskan last year. He also confessed that the municipality had not taken the complaints of its Jewish citizens seriously.

Malmo is virtually a segregated city. When the international media write about Rosengard, a poor immigrant area, the topic of choice is most often crime, criminals or challenges in education, employment and housing. Bombs and shootings have become commonplace, and cars are regularly set on fire.

Because of all this, the Sweden Democrats (SDs), a right-wing populist party once politically toxic, is now the third largest party in the Riksdag, the Swedish parliament. It has effectively fashioned a narrative linking the surge of predominantly Muslim immigrants to an uptick in violent crimes and perceived strains on the Swedish welfare system.

Last May the leader of the party, Jimmie Akesson, called for a crackdown on what he described as “imported values” that sanction violence against women.

Sweden’s Gender Equality Minister Marta Stenevi admitted that Sweden does have a problem with so-called “honour crimes,” which are committed to defend the supposed reputation of a family or extended community.

But she believes labelling violence towards women as an “immigrant issue” is uncalled for. Of course, this didn’t go over well with those stoking anti-immigrant feelings.

Akesson is trying to convince the center-right Moderate Party, the Christian Democrats and the Liberal Party that they will need his support to take power in next September’s election.

But it’s not just those on the right upset by what has changed in Sweden. It also has affected the liberal social classes.

As Malcolm Kyeyune, a freelance writer living in Uppsala, writes, in “Sweden’s Cultural Revolution,” at first after 2015 there was anger directed at the Swedes “who took a different position on refugees. They were too racist, too set in their ways, or too self-interested to heed the humanitarian clarion call.”

But now things are different. There is the realisation that nobody, including middle-class progressives, wants to live with the consequences of crime, social tensions, and violence committed by gangs.

Families now go to great lengths to avoid their own children mixing with immigrants in school. They worry about the academic implications -- not to mention the risk of violence and disorder -- of letting the immigrants into “their” schools. In Trollhattan, a decision taken to bus children from migrant areas to other schools met with fierce protests, including liberal politicians, in late 2020.

“An uneasy ceasefire prevails in Swedish society now,” concludes Kyeyune. “SD voters are no longer at risk of having their careers cancelled. In 2021, an unspoken attitude of ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ prevails.”

 

Germany Enters the Post-Merkel Era

By Henry Srebrnik, [Moncton, NB] Times & Transcript

On Sept. 26, Germans went to the polls in the country’s first federal election of the post Angela Merkel era.

A major question for voters was how the new chancellor would fare on the international stage and what that means for Germany’s role in the world. Immigration and social justice were also key campaign issues. 

Rising climate awareness, the handling of the coronavirus pandemic, and how to deal with its economic effects played a significant role as well.

The Social Democrats (SPD) and their candidate, outgoing Finance Minister Olaf Scholz in the Merkel coalition, have turned their fortunes around.

The SPD gained 25.7 per cent of the vote, good for 206 seats, a gain of 53, with the centre-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU) coming in at 24.1 per cent, which gave them 196 deputies, down 50.

They were followed by the Greens at 14.8 per cent and 118 seats, a big gain of 51; the Free Democratic Party (FDP) at 11.5 per cent and 92 seats, up 12; and the right-wing Alternative fur Deutschland (AfD) at 10.3 per cent and 83 seats, down 11.

The Left Party at 4.9 per cent percent and 39 wins suffered a loss of almost half its seats. Because it won three constituency seats, it kept its 36 list seats as well, despite being below the five per cent threshold in its overall vote.

“The voters have decided that the Social Democratic party has gained, and this is a great success,” remarked Scholz. He promised a “good, pragmatic government for Germany.” He highlighted his experience during the COVID-19 crisis to underline his credentials as the guarantor of the nation’s prosperity.

On the other hand, the CDU/CSU candidate Armin Laschet, led the party to the worst result in its history. Merkel had won four straight victories, but this marks the end of a 16-year run for the Christian Democrats.

Annalena Baerbock was the Green Party’s candidate for chancellor. She was keen to present herself as a credible leader and backed multilateralism in defence and security. She also attacked the former CDU-SPD coalition government over its record on climate protection.

The centrist FDP, led by Christian Lindner, saw the outcome as a desire for a moderate coalition government. The pro-free market party advocates lower taxes, more civil liberties, and cutting back the welfare state.

The AfD chose two anti-immigration hard-liners, Alice Weidel, and Tino Chrupalla, to lead it into this election. It maintained its base in the deindustrialized parts of the old East Germany.

The AfD looks skeptically on the European Union, doubts the ability of non-white refugees and economic migrants to integrate, and disavows urban identity politics.

The Left Party’s voter base is also traditionally East German, working class and elderly. Former Communists, they campaigned against welfare cuts and for strict controls of the banking sector. Led by Janine Wissler, it was the only party demanding a dissolution of NATO.

When Germans vote for their federal government, they cast two votes, one directly for their local member of the Bundestag, the lower house of parliament, and a second for a political party and its list of candidates. 

This mixed-member proportional system tries to combine the best of both worlds, with individual constituency deputies but with parties having their overall representation based on their national vote as well.

Germany has 299 electoral districts. This means that the Bundestag has 598 seats, half from the ridings and half from party lists.

But if a party wins more constituency seats than it’s entitled to if based just on its share of second vote results, it is allowed to keep these so-called “overhang” seats. No other parties lose seats as a result, so this Bundestag will now consist of 735 members.

A small party won one constituency seat, and 8.7 per cent of the list vote went to parties failing to make the threshold.

Scholz will now probably try to form a “traffic light coalition,” so called because the traditional colours of the three parties involved, the SPD, the Free Democrats and the Greens, are red, yellow and green. But this may take weeks.

 

Haiti’s Troubles on American Shores

By Henry Srebrnik, [Charlottown, PEI] Guardian

The ramifications of the political mess in Haiti that has followed the assassination of President Jovenal Moise in July have reached the American-Mexican border.

Haiti has suffered from years of political instability, culminating in the assassination, as well as in a deadly earthquake in August that killed 2,200 people. . Moise had been running the country by decree after failed elections two years ago.

It is also the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. Since 2018, gross domestic product has fallen 18 per cent to $13.4 billion, according to the World Bank. Per-capita GDP is just $1,176 and nearly 60 per cent of the population lives in poverty.

Nearly half the population, or 4.4 million people, need immediate food assistance, and 1.2 million suffer from extreme hunger, according to the World Food Program.

Some American analysts have urged the incoming Democratic administration of Joe Biden to give Haiti, with its deteriorating security situation and its constitutional crisis, more attention.

Biden may do so now, but only after what he himself called the “heinous” killing of its president and the chaotic aftermath. While Haitian authorities have arrested many people, to this day no one really knows who ordered the murder and many questions regarding the death remain unanswered.

In fact Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry recently fired Port-au-Prince’s chief prosecutor, Bed-Ford Claude, and Justice Minister Rockefeller Vincent, accused of obstruction of justice. Henry has been linked to one of the suspects.

“In Haiti, more than a failing state we have a non-existent state,” remarked economist Joseph Harold Pierre, a consultant on Haiti and Haitian-Dominican relations for several international organizations. According to the National Human Rights Defence Network, there are more than 90 gangs in the country, likely with thousands of members and far more powerful than the police.

Rival gangs have taken over entire neighborhoods, driven thousands from their homes, closed a major hospital, shut down fuel distribution routes and barred farmers from markets. 

Haiti Central Bank Governor Jean Baden Dubois remarked that chronic unemployment exacerbated by the pandemic has added to the problem. Now “gangs are the biggest employers,” he said. “We need to create jobs, while we are putting the gangs out of a job.”

Meanwhile, the troubles in Haiti have reached American shores, along the Rio Grande border. Recently, some 15,000 migrants were camped under a highway bridge attempting to get asylum in the United States, by crossing the Rio Grande from Ciudad Acuna, Mexico to Del Rio, Texas.

A significant number had fled following the devastating earthquake that struck the country in 2010, killing hundreds of thousands of people. Many took up residence in Brazil, attracted by the promise of plentiful jobs during the 2016 Summer Olympics and 2014 World Cup.

When those jobs dried up, they began heading to other countries in Latin America. From South America the Haitians headed north to the U.S.

The Biden administration has sent thousands of Haitian migrants back to Haiti, using Title 42 of the United States Code of Federal Regulations, which allows the government wide authority to deal with epidemics. 

Some have been expelled to Haiti by force, others convinced to cross the border back to Mexico, while a number remain in limbo in the U.S. By Sept. 24, the crisis had abated.

Haiti has long been subject to American attempts to control its politics. Between 1911 and 1915, seven presidents were assassinated or overthrown in Haiti, leading to American Marines occupying country. They stayed until 1934. 

The United States intervened on the grounds that it was stabilizing a political crisis. But it consolidated the country’s finances according to U.S. banking interests. The American influence endured through the rest of the century, under the murderous, kleptocratic yet anti-communist Duvalier dynasty.

In 2004, the United States, allied with France and Canada, deposed the left-wing Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Instability brought in a United Nations peacekeeping force which did little to improve matters. Since then, things have become even worse, especially after the 2010 earthquake.

Meanwhile, more Haitians are heading north from South American countries. This problem isn’t going away any time soon.