Other Disgruntled EU Nations Could Follow UK’s Example
Preface by Pam Barker | TLB staff writer
The ‘Brexit’ vote, due to take place on June 23, 2016 will decide if the UK should stay in the EU super-state. Now, Sweden may be ready to follow suit.
Sweden’s 9.8 million population has been especially chafing at the bit with the enforced influx of migrants into the country. It has taken in one of the highest numbers of refugees in proportion to its population anywhere in Europe and has been dealing with some significant social problems along the way, including the stabbing death of Alexander Mezher, a 22 year old woman working at a refugee center, and problems such as gangs of Moroccan street children invading the area around Stockholm’s central train station, stealing from passersby and sexually assaulting girls. Violent incidents at migrant centers are also causing concern and requiring a lot of police resources.
In 2015, Sweden took in 160,000 migrants and is now planning to deport around 80,000, those whose applications to stay are likely to be rejected. How it will actually manage to deport them is another question entirely, with significant and expensive logistical challenges.
It is hardly surprising, then, that Sweden is considering following Britain’s lead if it should vote to leave the EU on June 23, 2016.
In an article by William F. Jasper for The New American, he notes how Swedish support for the EU has declined significantly in just the past year according to recent polls.
The impact of the Brexit vote may well affect nations other than Sweden. Little wonder that the globalist elites are in panic mode.
Enjoy Jasper’s short, informative piece and links to other related articles.
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By William F. Jasper
“Swedes tell Britain: if you leave the EU, we’ll follow.” That’s the title of a recent article by Fraser Nelson, editor of The Spectator, the British newspaper, and columnist for The Telegraph, another UK daily. Nelson is commenting on the trending anger, angst, and disgust in liberal, socialist Sweden toward the European Union, as shown by a recent TNS Sifo poll. It is a political development that has erupted volcanically as a response largely due to the disastrous, EU/UN-driven migration crisis. After opening its gates, Sweden has been swamped with “refugees” — virtually all of whom are Muslim — and is now struggling to deport about half of them.
The elites of the corporate-media-political establishment have been in a frenzy, sending a non-stop flurry of warnings to British voters that a vote for Brexit (to exit the EU) would make Britain a poor, lonely outsider. Better for Britain, say the elites, to stay in the EU and trust to reforms of the EU system, such as the empty, meaningless “reforms” negotiated by Prime Minister David Cameron earlier this year.
But as Nelson points out, the Brexit could actually be the catalyst for others — Sweden included — to follow. “If Britain were to leave the European Union, would it survive?,” Nelson asks. “Britain is one of the least enthusiastic members of the EU, but other more globally-minded countries are tiring of the protectionism and insularity in Brussels,” he answers. “Reformers in Sweden are aghast at the prospect of Brexit, seeing Britain as their main ally in trying to fight off protectionism…. But as many in Britain come to conclude that this fight is lost, and we’re better off out, many Swedes are coming to the same conclusion.”
Nelson notes further:
According to a poll by TNS Sifo, the largest polling firm in Sweden, 36 per cent of the Swedes would wish to leave the EU if Brits vote to leave, and just 32 per cent would stay. Remember, this is a Sweden that voted in defiance of its entire political class in 2003 against adopting the Euro. And, of course, a Sweden that has suffered more than most from the EU’s failure to respond to recent demographic challenges: it has ended up with more asylum seekers, per capita, than any country on earth.
A similar story in another British daily, The Express, noted that the recent survey survey, conducted by Swedish polling company TNS Sifo and commissioned by public broadcaster SVT, “found that just 39 per cent of Swedes aged 18 to 79 believe that being in the EU is a positive thing, compared with 59 per cent last autumn.” Entitled, “Swexit? Swedish support for EU plummets amid tensions over migrant crisis,” the Express piece notes of the TNS Sifo poll respondents that “over half said the EU was going in the wrong direction. Only eight per cent said they believe things are improving.”
The dramatic decline in support for the EU, says the Express, can be attributed to the reality of violent crime and social turmoil that have accompanied the huge influx of refugees in the past year. “In January, Alexandra Mezher, 22, was working on a night shift alone at the home for unaccompanied young refugees in Mölndal, near Gothenburg when she was stabbed to death.,” the article reminded readers. “Her family say their ‘angel’ would still be with them if Sweden had a different policy on refugees. Meanwhile, Europe continues to face the worst crisis since the Second World War, with over a million asylum seekers arriving to the continent in 2015.”
In an earlier report, the Express noted that the Mezhner murder “comes amid rising tensions over migration in Sweden. The number of threats and violent incidents at asylum facilities doubled between 2014 and 2015.”
The Express continued: “Earlier this week, Stockholm police warned that the capital’s main train station is ‘overrun’ by gangs of Moroccan street children, who are ‘stealing and groping girls’ and have called for more resources to cope.”
“We’re dealing with more incidents like these since the arrival of so many more refugees from abroad,” a police spokesman stated. “According to the Swedish migration agency violent incidents at reception centres have doubled from 2014 to 2015,” reported the Express. “In 2014 148 incidents were reported against 322 in 2015.”
The murder of Alexandra Mezher came as National Police Commissioner Dan Eliasson was requesting 4,100 additional officers and support staff “to help fight terrorism, carry out migrant deportations and police asylum accommodations.” “We are forced to respond to many disturbances in asylum reception centres,” Eliasson said. “In some places, this takes significant police resources.”
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TLB recommends other articles by The New American
References
http://www.thenewamerican.com/world-news/europe/item/22446-sweden-makes-plans-to-deport-80-000
About the author
William F. Jasper is the senior editor of The New American
About the contributor
Pam Barker is a TLB staff writer/analyst. She has an extensive background in the educational system of several countries at the college and university level as a teacher and administrator
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