Friday, July 11, 2025

Polaris of Enlightenment

Sources: Swedish police ban of Koran burning was illegal

Published 22 May 2023
– By Editorial Staff
Rasmus Paludan has been illegally denied a permit for Koran burning by the Swedish police on ten occasions.
3 minute read

Rasmus Paludan, the Danish-Swedish critic of Islam, has been refused permission to hold demonstrations in the form of Koran burning in Sweden on a number of occasions, including on May Day last year. Now it turns out that the police have circumvented the law to prevent Paludan from obtaining a permit to demonstrate. The reason is pressure from both politicians and Muslim groups.

Several of Rasmus Paludan’s applications for demonstration permits in Sweden have been denied by the police. However, the politician has appealed the Swedish police’s decision several times to the administrative court, but has still not been allowed to carry out his demonstrations with Koran burning in a number of cases.

It now appears that the police have bent the law to prevent critics of Islam from demonstrating, police sources told the Bonnier newspaper DN.

In ten different rulings from five administrative courts, it has been established that the police decision to deny Paludan’s demonstration permit was wrong, but despite this, the police still denied the permit.

The court said that Paludan is calm, does not throw stones, but that it is violent outsiders who do so. Therefore, the police can’t refuse on those grounds, yet Paludan was still refused, says Åsa Erlandsson, who reported for DN, to SR.

The so-called Easter riots in 2022 in several Swedish cities are among the most violent ever seen in Sweden and Paludan has been heavily criticized for deliberately provoking the violence, something he denies. However, he believes that his points and arguments are strengthened “for what is happening in Sweden”, something the Danish-Swede has previously said in an interview with TV4.

The reason why the police denied the permit against the will of the administrative court is because of pressure from politicians and Muslim groups. Erlandsson says that it was initially the former Social Democratic government that put pressure on the highest police leadership regarding the continued Koran burning during May 1 last year.

There was a national direction from the police that Paludan would not be allowed anywhere until the second of May. Quite simply, a nation-wide Paludan ban, says the journalist.

When Turkey stopped Sweden from joining NATO, one of the requirements was, and still is, a complete ban on Koran burning. With that came pressure from the new government for the police to stop the Islam critic’s demonstration permit.

It is precisely in situations like this, when pressure is high and political winds are blowing, that we should stick to the law. But we didn’t, says one of DN’s sources.

Both the previous and current governments have denied putting pressure on the government authority and that the police themselves acted completely independently. Meanwhile, national police chief Anders Thornberg has chosen not to comment on the information. However, the National Police Commissioner has now been summoned to an extraordinary meeting of the Police Transparency Council, which he chairs with representatives of all parliamentary parties.

We have to get to the bottom of this, says Rasmus Ling (MP), a member of the justice committee and the police transparency council, to DN. We need to ask questions about the granting of permits in general and whether he has felt political pressure. If he does not want to answer questions from DN, I think he should do so in the forum for public transparency in the police.

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Swedish climate extremists who blocked ambulance acquitted by Supreme Court

The exaggerated climate crisis

Published today 14:14
– By Editorial Staff
Police remove the road blockade in August 2022.
2 minute read

A nearly three-year legal process concluded this week when all activists from Restore Wetlands (Återställ Våtmarker) were acquitted for blocking the E4 motorway in August 2022, which in addition to causing long traffic jams also delayed an ambulance on an emergency call.

According to Sweden’s Supreme Court (Högsta domstolen), the road blockade was not comparable to the threats against vital societal interests required by law for a conviction of sabotage, and therefore acquitted all participants in the climate alarmist group’s action. The Supreme Court particularly emphasized the importance of freedom of demonstration and freedom of expression in a ruling that will serve as guidance for how civil disobedience should be punished, which in practice opens the door for more motorway blockades.

The legal situation has been unclear regarding what constitutes a serious disruption or obstruction in these cases. It’s good that we now have clear guidance from the Supreme Court on how prosecutions for sabotage should be assessed in the future, says Chief Prosecutor Katarina Johansson Welin in the Supreme Court’s press release.

The group itself describes its action as an “act of love”.

Victory! Today we celebrate that the sabotage charge has been shot down for the last time. In my heart, I have always known that I acted exactly right. To sit peacefully and openly on a motorway and demand that emissions decrease is among the strongest acts of love for our children and for life that you can do, and we did exactly that, says one of those acquitted in the climate group’s press release.

Green Party economist: Good that fewer children are born in Sweden

The exaggerated climate crisis

Published today 11:36
– By Editorial Staff
The Green Party politician Lennart Olsen sees children as an unnecessary burden on the economy and the environment.
2 minute read

That fewer children are born in Sweden is only good for the environment, argues Green Party (Miljöpartiet) politician Lennart Olsen. Children and young people also cost more than older people, who can still work at higher ages if the pension age is raised, he adds.

Olsen writes in a debate article in the Bonnier publication Dagens Nyheter that people should view positively the fact that Swedes are not reproducing themselves.

“What’s needed here is a reversed perspective, where lower birth rates and eventually decreasing population should be welcomed to reduce the exploitation of the earth’s ecosystems“.

The Green Party member believes that the Swedish government’s investigation aimed at proposing measures to raise the very low birth rates in Sweden is “misguided”. He argues that the state can save money from fewer children being born.

“For the state’s and municipal sector’s economy, children and young people are a much greater expense than the elderly. This is because virtually all people between 0 and 20 years old cost a lot of money in the form of preschool, school, higher education, parental insurance, child allowance and more“, Olsen explains his thesis and argues that older people also won’t need as much pension if the retirement age is raised further.

Above all, the Green Party economist sees the possibility that fewer Swedish children will lead to a better climate in the long term.

“The positive effects of such a development can then also take effect and lead to reduced pressure on the earth’s ecosystems“, writes Olsen.

Olsen represents a so-called neo-Malthusian line, an ideological movement that strives for reduced population and strongly influences the climate alarmist movement.

Sweden’s Christian Democrats call for tax relief for families with children

Published yesterday 7:08
– By Editorial Staff
1 minute read

Swedish families with children should receive tax relief, according to the same model as Hungary. This is proposed by Christian Democrat leader Ebba Busch.

The catastrophically low birth rate has recently become a topic of discussion even among Swedish politicians. Childbirth in Sweden is at historically low levels. During 2023, an average of 1.43 children were born per woman – the lowest figure ever recorded. The standing solution advocated among Swedish politicians has been to bring foreigners to Sweden to replace the population.

The leader of the Christian Democrats Ebba Busch proposes on this theme to follow the Hungarian model, where families with children receive significant tax relief that increases for each child. The principle is to make it easier for one or later both parents to support themselves through work instead of benefits.

If current birth rate trends continue in Sweden, each new generation will be approximately 30 percent smaller than the previous one, which means major consequences including for the labor market and welfare system when fewer people of working age must support a growing elderly population.

 

Almost total halt for imported berry pickers in Sweden

Published 8 July 2025
– By Editorial Staff
2 minute read

The Swedish Migration Agency has rejected almost all applications for berry pickers for 2025. As recently as 2023, 5,000 permits were granted.

Citing years of indications that employment conditions in the berry industry are not being upheld, the Migration Agency has granted only 89 permits for berry picking this year. A total of 2,397 applications for berry pickers have been received for 2025.

Last year, the Migration Agency rejected all applications for berry pickers, but 1,272 applications were subsequently approved after court review.

The Migration Agency has also this year assessed that workers in the berry industry risk not having their employment conditions met. Therefore, the agency has decided to reject most of the applications for Thai berry pickers, says Hanna Geurtsen, Deputy Project Manager for Work Permits at the Migration Agency, in a press release.

This year, the Migration Agency explains, all employers active in berry picking have chosen to apply for permits via the EU’s Seasonal Workers Directive. The difference when applying for a work permit as a seasonal worker, compared with the national main track for work permits, is among other things that the berry pickers this year are directly employed by a company in Sweden and not via a foreign staffing agency.

It’s partly about having an employment contract signed by both parties and that the employment conditions must be in line with Swedish collective agreements. For the majority of the applications received this year, these requirements have not been met, says Hanna Geurtsen.

The berry companies that have been rejected have the possibility to appeal these decisions in court, the agency adds in its press release.

Number of berry picking permits granted by the Migration Agency in recent years:

2025: 89
2024: 0 (1,272 were approved after court review)
2023: 5,372
2022: 6,594
2021: 5,175

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