At the Nobel banquet, the main figures in Sweden’s statehood gather. The king and crown princess, government representative, opposition leader and the speaker. Foreign dignitaries and the research elite in Sweden.
The security burden is enormous.
– This is not a wishful thinking mission, says Leif GW Persson, criminologist and author.
With the deteriorating security situation, the Police have stepped in when the annual Nobel Banquet is organized in the Blue Hall tonight. Preparations have been going on for months.
– The situation has become more serious. It has simply become more threatening. It is very difficult to protect hundreds of people from someone or a few being exposed to an attack that would have a colossal media impact, says GW Persson.
“A manageable situation”
New for this year is that areas around the Concert Hall where the prizes are awarded must be blocked off, and the same applies to the City Hall where the banquet is held. They do not go into more detail about what the Police and Säpo have changed in their routines.
– It is a combination of external physical surveillance, that you monitor and search premises, that you have special protection against people who are more risky than others. Plus a previous intelligence work where they try to track threat images.
– I think this will be fixed. It is a manageable situation in some sense, says GW Persson in Nyhetsmorgon.
“Had declined”
Leif GW Persson says that he would have refused to go if he had been invited, but it is not about safety.
– I have actually been invited at some point but always declined. It’s such a colossally drawn-out dinner, it goes on for hours. I have no intention of going, and I’m not invited either, so I don’t have to make the decision.
– I have no intention of limping off to the Nobel party, I don’t. I don’t think I’m missing anything in particular.