The principle of Rasmus Paludan is well known.

It is the principle of provocation.

An announced Islamophobic action, a Koran burning, preferably where many people with a migration background live nearby, many Muslims.

Then the outrage of the local residents, the protection of the event by the police, all the excitement and attention.

Matthias Wysuwa

Political correspondent for northern Germany and Scandinavia based in Hamburg.

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As early as 2019, Paludan tried to win votes for his radical right-wing splinter party “Stram Kurs” in Denmark.

He made the headlines, but not Parliament.

At the neighbor in Sweden, however, he immediately started a wildfire over Easter.

Serious riots and violent protests broke out in several cities.

People's anger was also directed at the police.

Police officers were attacked and police cars caught fire.

Protesters protected by police

In doing so, Paludan has not only gained attention for himself, but also for a topic: All the violence against the police has brought the focus back to questions that are likely to determine the political debate in Sweden in the coming months: What went wrong with of integration, where do the outbreaks of violence come from?

This is how the state police chief Anders Thornberg summed it up on Monday: "This has nothing to do with protest, this is an unjustified attack on our legal society and our democracy."

Violent protests against Paludan's – approved – action in Linköping, where he had announced the burning of the Koran, began on Thursday.

That was when the first clashes broke out.

On Friday, Paludan arrived in Rinkeby, an immigrant neighborhood on the outskirts of Stockholm that is also known nationwide for its problems.

According to a report in the Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter, the police protected him from an angry crowd of counter-demonstrators when he allegedly threw the Koran on the ground and then set it on fire.

Stones and bottles were thrown, the police kept Paludan out of the range of the projectiles with great difficulty and became a target themselves.

In the evening, violent outbreaks of violence broke out in Örebro, about 200 kilometers west of the capital, before the next announced burning of the Koran.

Rioters attacked the police, who first had to protect Paludan and then themselves: about a dozen people were injured, most of them police officers.

Police cars went up in flames.

And so it went on over the Easter holidays in more and more cities: In Norrköping in the south, the police had to fire warning shots because they had been attacked: A man was injured in the leg and had to go to the hospital.

Stones and Molotov cocktails were repeatedly thrown at the police, rubbish bins and car tires were set on fire, and in Malmö a bus and school were set on fire.

Police chief criticizes ruling party

State police chief Thornberg and his colleagues presented the balance sheet of the holidays on Monday: 26 police officers were injured, 20 police vehicles were damaged or destroyed, at least 14 other people were injured, and the average number of violent participants was around 200. Of the six approved events Two were held in full, one in part - three did not happen because of the riots.

"We've seen violent riots before," Thornberg said.

"But I would like to say that this is something else." The police have strong suspicions "that those who attack the police and emergency services are linked to criminal gangs".

With this, Thornberg drew a connection to an issue that has long been one of the most important in the country – especially in view of the general election in September.

The growing gang crime has long been seen as a major problem by the governing Social Democrats, while the bourgeois opposition criticizes the party for having closed its eyes to the problems of integration in the country for too long.

Shootings in gangs kept the whole of Sweden busy.

"We have long said that the crime situation in the country is very serious," Thornberg said.

What you have seen in the last few days are serious symptoms of a major problem in Sweden.

The Social Democratic Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson had strongly condemned the violence against the police, as did her challenger Ulf Kristersson from the moderates.

It is reported that Paludan also wants to run with his party in the Swedish elections.

In Denmark he received almost 1.8 percent in 2019.