Crime Wave Vexes Swedish Voters: Violence raises concern over upcoming national elections

World
Europe

03:00

Sweden is one of the most advanced welfare states in the world. But are Swedes losing faith in the "Swedish model"? Polls are split on whether right wing populists could win elections on Sunday — the center left Social Democrats have been the largest party there for more than a century. Crime has become the rebels' rallying cry. CGTN's Guy Henderson reports.

If it wasn't this, in Rosengard, it could have been something far worse. This is the heart of gangland in the southern Swedish city of Malmo. The young people who come here are looking for hope.

ANDREE JONESBOXING TRAINER "They need to work up their self-esteem and this is the best place to do that: get all that energy out. They have a lot of energy, so they just need to put it into something good instead of something bad."

Daniel Donlind did that and became national boxing champion multiple times. Many of his friends from childhood ended up in jail or dead. Sweden's welfare state didn't reach them.

DANIEL DONLIND FORMER SWEDISH NATIONAL BOXING CHAMPION "The importance is: they see me, I get attention. And that's why they are doing this kind of stuff. Second thing is a role model: they need to have role models. Some of them have 'Scarface' as a role model."

Neighbourhoods like these are often called ghettos. Immigrants are the majority. Anger and frustration appear to be nearing boiling point.

GUY HENDERSONMALMO "At around this time in the evening two days ago, another person was shot dead in Malmo - on this street. It is this kind of violence, often in what police call 'high risk zones', that has put crime at the top of the political agenda as Swedes head to the polls".

Nationally, crime's been coming down. But a series of car-burnings and grenade attacks this year have caused alarm. Gang-related gun murders are 10 times higher than in the early 1990s. And convictions rates are low. In Malmo, police believe a handful of offenders serve a few months for lesser crimes. Then go out, and do the same again.

STEFAN SINTEUSMALMO POLICE COMMISSIONER "They have no schools, they live outside of society and the municipality, and they don't care about their own lives or other's lives. And they are living on crime very happily."

This was no nes to drug roundabout. Officers are getting used to a new reality.

JONATAN ÖRSTRANDMALMO POLICE "Of course, we have to be more mentally prepared that something is going to happen. So we always expect, we know that things are going to happen. We are getting quite used to things happening, so we know how to handle them."

There is consensus: something has gone terribly wrong. The deep division amongst Swedes is over how to fix it. GH, CGTN, Malmo.