Political fringes want to campaign outside Järva Week

The sun is setting over Spånga sports ground in northwest Stockholm, where the annual Järva Week starts on 1 June. White tents are set up and the event venue is emerging. After two years of pandemic, it is expected to break the old visitor record from 2019 and attract up to 60,000 participants.

– This year’s main theme is the choice is yours. Both because it is election year, and based on all the choices we make in everyday life. Not everyone around the world has the opportunity to make choices like us, who can enjoy freedom, says Ahmed Abdirahman, CEO of the foundation The Global Village, which founded Järva Week.

Around him are some of the sports organizers who will participate in Järva Week in a semicircle and listen when Ahmed Abdirahman explains what will happen and how to relate to it.

– We will have high, high security in an election year like this. It is important that you are aware that there will be many children and young people and should something happen, it is good if you encourage them to ignore it and continue to be here and have fun. And then you let us know. We will have security personnel, officials and volunteers on site, says Ahmed Abdirahman.

Suddenly his calls mobile phone. It’s Ebba Busch’s staff calling. The Christian Democrats’ party leader is one of seven party leaders who come to Järva Week. Jimmie Åkesson (SD), on the other hand, has announced that he will boycott, as the profile Kakan Hermansson is one of the presenters on the digital part called Järvaveckan live. According to Jimmie Åkesson, she has made herself known for “a series of politically extreme and directly offensive statements”.

One of the purposes of Järva Week is to gather all party leaders for the parliamentary parties, but to go to different parties or actors to meet was never an option, says Ahmed Abdirahman.

– Kakan Hermansson was present in 2021 and then all party leaders for the parliamentary parties were present. We stick to our policy as an independent non-profit actor, he says.

Someone who, on the other hand has announced that he intends to come is Rasmus Paludan, leader of the right-wing extremist Stram Kurs, who since Easter went around Swedish cities and burned the Koran, after which violent riots broke out in several places. Paludan first planned to come as a visitor, but when he was told that only parties from the Riksdag, the region and the city of Stockholm are welcome to participate politically, he sent an application to the police on 18 May to hold demonstrations every day in front of Järva Week’s entrance .

Rasmus Paludan’s Tight Course is not the only party that wants a campaign in connection with Järva Week.

Two days earlier, the party Nyans also sent in an application to the police to get an election campaign outside Järva Week’s main entrance. Nuans is an identity-political party that mainly targets Muslims. Minister of Justice Morgan Johansson (S) has called Nuans one “Threat to the open society”, who want to strike a wedge between Muslims and the rest of society.

Recently, on May 21, the far-right party Alternative for Sweden also submitted an application to put up a banner at the entrance and hand out leaflets.

Ahmed Abdirahman says that the players who want to demonstrate outside Spånga IP will not affect Järva Week’s events inside the sports field.

– No. Security is always security, no matter what. We have a good dialogue with the authorities and I expect that the police will find solutions that maintain public order outside our area as well. We live in a democracy and if someone wants to apply for a permit, it is a police matter, it is no stranger than that.

The applications from Rasmus Paludan, Alternative for Sweden and Nyans are being processed by the Police Authority.