At least 50 people have been arrested in Sweden’s second-largest city after a demonstration by an anti-Semitic group today.
Several people, including one police officer, were injured during the Nordic Resistance Movement rally in Goteborg.
An estimated 600 people marched in formation while wearing all-black outfits, with some wearing helmets and carrying shields.
Others. meanwhile, hoisted the movement’s green-and-white flags.
Nordic Resistance Movement members with shields come up against the police in Goteborg
An estimated 600 people marched in formation while wearing all-black outfits, with some wearing helmets and carrying shields
Several people, including one police officer, was injured during the Nordic Resistance Movement rally in Goteborg
Nordic Resistance Movement, which promotes an openly anti-Semitic doctrine, originally sought to pass near a downtown synagogue during the march, which coincided with Yom Kippur, Judaism’s holiest day
Police had posted flyers before the event warning people not to act in a way reminiscent of German Nazis demonstrations in the 1930s and 1940s.
Nordic Resistance Movement, which promotes an openly anti-Semitic doctrine, originally sought to pass near a downtown synagogue during the march, which coincided with Yom Kippur, Judaism’s holiest day.
But Swedish courts intervened and shortened the route to less than half a mile.
The rally’s ending time also was shortened to avoid clashing with a nearby football game.
Counter-demonstrators threw fireworks and attempted several times to break police lines, allegedly to confront Nordic Resistance Movement members, who also tried to get past riot police.
Several were detained on suspicion of rioting, police said.
Police offered to shuttle Nordic Resistance Movement members away in buses after they were circled by riot police on a Goteborg square, preventing them from completing their march. Police said the move was meant to keep both sides apart.
The Nordic Resistance Movement later demanded that its leader who had been detained, Simon Lindberg, be released before they would leave the square.
Counter-demonstrators threw rocks at police outside the Liseberg amusement park, which reportedly shut down its main entrance.
Counter-protesters are surrounded by police during the rally
Counter-demonstrators threw fireworks and attempted several times to break police lines, allegedly to confront Nordic Resistance Movement members, who also tried to get past riot police
The Nordic Resistance Movement later demanded that its leader who had been detained, Simon Lindberg, be released before they would leave the square
Police offered to shuttle Nordic Resistance Movement members away in buses after they were circled by riot police on a Goteborg square, preventing them from completing their march. Police said the move was meant to keep both sides apart
Some 20 people, mostly Danes and Germans, were stopped as they arrived in Sweden to take part in the demonstration.
‘As a democracy, we should do much more to oppose Nazism and extremism,’ Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven told reporters Friday at an EU summit in Tallinn.
Goteborg was scarred by violent demonstrations in 2001 on the sidelines of a European Union summit.