The right-wing Sweden Democrats no longer want to see beggars in front of shops. Implementing your election promise will likely be difficult.
With the support of the right-wing populist Sweden Democrats party, the country’s conservative minority government is apparently considering a nationwide ban on begging. This is reported by the US magazine “Politico”. “This is good and absolutely necessary,” Linda Lindberg, leader of the Sweden Democrats, told the magazine.
Lindberg claims that begging was rare in Sweden until the early 2010s. Then many EU citizens from other countries came to Sweden to beg: “In our opinion, it is unreasonable for people to travel across half of Europe to beg in front of our shops,” said the politician, adding that in Sweden I have already banned begging before.
The begging ban was one of the election promises of the Sweden Democrats, who won a narrow majority in the 2022 general election alongside the country’s three governing center-right parties. The Sweden Democrats are not part of the government coalition, but support it on a case-by-case basis.
The government in Stockholm has now appointed a commissioner to review the legality of a begging ban. The Swedish government does not want to violate international conventions and human rights standards, it said. The Liberals in Parliament, who are also part of the minority government, have already announced that they will reject a ban on begging. The government representative is expected to present his results to parliament by the end of 2025.
