Sweden Democrats, known as SD, the political party in Sweden that won 12,86 % of the votes at the last election but no other party wants to be associated with, are currently running a controversial campaign in one single subway station in Stockholm. As soon as the campaign went up, people on social media protested the message and spread photos of the posters, effectively ensuring that all the newspapers and the evening news would give the campaign earned media space. On the evening news, Amie Bramme Sey announced that she's staging a demonstration against the ads, with a facebook event as the hub, which will take place tonight at 18:00, and already 12000 people have confirmed that they're going.
The posters, and the elaborate sticker message that you see when you go down the escalators, apologises to tourists for Sweden in English. The copy reads:
"Sorry about the mess here in Sweden. = ( We have a serious problem with forced begging. International gangs profit from peoples desperation. Our government won't do what's needed. But we will! And we are growing at record speed. = ) We are the only opposition party in Sweden. We are Sweden Democrats! Welcome back to a better Sweden in 2018."
At the end of the escalator ride, two posters cover the wall, on the left there's a huge image of what's supposed to look like a Romani beggar sleeping in the street. "Sweden can do better than this" the line above it reads. On the opposite wall a giant SD logo and flowers cements their status as the "only opposition party in Sweden". This was made clear when the December agreement in 2014, joined together the 7 other parties both left & right, against SD. Comedian and podcaster Soran Ismail responded to the campaign by tweeting "high time to start 'planka' (a word for fare evasion)" and the hashtag "Stockholm public transport spreads racism." The tweet has been retweeted over 500 times, while some who are responding to it ask him why he's encouraging people to break the law. The hashtag #SLspriderrasism has 3,320 tweets so far.
Hög tid att börja planka då #SLSpriderRasism
— Soran Ismail (@Soranismail) August 3, 2015
Sweden has, during the past few years, seen a very unfortunate rise in people begging on the streets and sleeping on the streets. This was a sight never seen at all in Stockholm back in the 90s, when there were homeless shelters and a network that had the resources to help people who fell on hard times. This winter I recall being utterly shocked, and scared, for the 50 odd people I counted sleeping on freezing cold streets early one morning. It's clear that something needs to be done, before we turn into a New York of the 80s, counting the dead street-sleepers after every cold snap.
One of the posters has been vandalized and now has "Arbeit Macht Frei" written on it. Seeing as SD are claiming the beggars are being forced to do so by criminal gangs, the graffiti is ominous in more ways than one.
The other poster is also barely there, after being torn down the same day that it was put up. Meanwhile, the Liberal Youth (west) party were in Stockholm yesterday, and were very quick to tweet a snarky response, tailor made for the day:
Otur för SD att de lanserade sin tiggerikampanj samma dag som både @Maax747 och @HenrikEdin var i Stockholm. pic.twitter.com/R40N5m4mQ8
— LUF Väst (@lufvast) August 3, 2015
Emma, one of the ladies arranging tonights demonstration against these ads, told "Nyheter24" that she has friends who work for SL (Stockholm public transport), who "didn't want to go to work today", due to these posters in one single subway station. She adds "A lot of our friends have become upset and contacted SL, who then simply respond that they haven't gone against any guidelines. It's our opinion then, that these guidelines need to change, so that SL can't hide behind a few lines any more." Perhaps this demonstrating group would also care to challenge SL, and the Clear channel advertising network in the subway, in the Swedish courts. Much like the Pamela Geller "Killing Jews" MTA ads saga, the end results may be unexpected. Meanwhile, SD paid very little for an extremely widespread campaign when you count the earned media, and they did it between election years. As a PR stunt, it was very effective. Clear Channel will repair the vandalized posters as soon as they can. SD may even be able to ask for an extended run, as compensation, since their campaign was torn down the very first day it appeared.
Edit: It has been erroneously reported on other news sites that there's a typo on the copy, but the word "government" is actually spelled correctly in the posters. See image ^. Please read this update to get to the bottom of the spelling error. Here's the full effect riding the escalator.
Client: Sverigedemokraterna
Beyond calling it racist which is interesting since I assume the beggars are all European, are the protestors offering up a solution to the problem? Or is their solution to let people sleep on the streets? If that's the case, it doesn't sound like a solution so much as letting people who aren't the same race deteriorate on the streets. Which sounds kind of racist to me.
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PermalinkThe Sweden Democrats want to put a ban on begging. This would only force the beggars to relocate, and wouldn't help them in the slightest. No, the protestors probably don't have a solution to offer, but we're sensible enough not to make things worse for the poor.
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PermalinkHow much worse can it get if you're leaving them on the streets?
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PermalinkInteresting how that Swede didn't reply. I wonder if he remembers when we only had "orginalare" on the streets.
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PermalinkSo if you ban begging in all EU countries would that mean that the Romanian gypsies would have to go elsewhere?
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PermalinkNow are the advert completely taken down after an public riot. And SL will look into their deal with Clear Channel and maybe terminate it due to bad judgement among Clear Channels employees in Sweden.
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PermalinkHere's some footage of the minor riot where people who demonstrated against the ad posters, peacefully with signs, speeches and chants at Norrmalmstorg, then ran to the subway station Östermalmstorg and tore down every single banner. The police arrested two people for vandalism last night, and took some people into custody tonight - they hope to clear anything else up with the help of the CCTV in the subway.
http://www.expressen.se/tv/nyheter/politik/hundratals-stormade-tunnelbanestationen
I'll have an official statement from SL in the morning.
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PermalinkSo Swedes who want to keep immigrants sleeping on the streets do a victory lap and then vandalize property, thereby suppressing free speech. That kind of makes them fascists, vandals and anti-immigration racists doesn't it?
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PermalinkNew article today: to clear up the misconception about SL wanting to "terminate Clear Channel" as claimed in the comment above (answer: no they don't) & more: Minor riot tears down political party SD's posters in Stockholm Subway. Apologies that it took so long to get statements but Clear Channels & SL's phones have been jammed all morning.
Regarding the legalities of begging, that varies widely in Hungary there's a nationwide ban, and it's also illegal in Romania, Italy, Greece, Denmark, restricted in Canada, Austria and the United States and many more places, while it's still legal in Finland and Sweden.
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PermalinkIt's worth noting that Romanias ambassador to Sweden backs a begging ban because that it is permitted to beg in Sweden "does not facilitate Romania's efforts to achieve social inclusion and increased employability" .
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PermalinkI know people aren't happy with the way the party brought problem of increased homelessness to people's attention, but instead of tarring and feathering the messengers, why not try discussing real solutions to the problem? Or is it that the protesters would like to pretend there is no rising poverty issue and that tourists aren't leaving with a tarnished image in their minds of what Sweden is like?
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