Neo-Nazi rally draws protests in Stockholm

Around 300 neo-Nazi activists demonstrated in central Stockholm yesterday, drawing boos from protesters and politicians seeking to ban their movement.Under the close watch of a detachment of police, activists from the Nordic Resistance Movement (NRM) gathered in a square in the Swedish capital.At the edges of the square, hundreds of counter-demonstrators gathered behind a security cordon, shouting slogans and banging the metal barriers in a bid to drown out the NRM speeches.Among the protesters was Culture Minister Alice Bah Kuhnke, who was born to a Gambian father and a Swedish mother.Both the rally and the counter-protests ended peacefully without incident, an AFP correspondent said.Sweden, which boasts a long tradition of welcoming refugees and persecuted groups, is experiencing a creeping increase in neo-Nazi activities, both in public and on social media.The NRM, which was founded in 1997, is a political party which openly promotes a racist and anti-Semitic doctrine and has been described as the country’s most violent Nazi organisation by Swedish anti-racism magazine Expo.Although the group counts a core membership of barely 80 members, it was more active than ever before in 2017, the magazine said earlier this year.The NRM says it wants to usher in a national socialist government.For the first time in its 21-year history, the NRM will present a list of 24 candidates to run in September 9 elections, although the party is unlikely to pass the 4.0% threshold to enter parliament.One of its candidates is facing a police investigation for raising a flag on April 20 in honour of Adolf Hitler’s birthday.Writing on Facebook yesterday, Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven said he wanted to ban neo-Nazi organisations.“Democracy has always had the right to protect itself from the forces willing to resort to violence to destroy it,” he said.