After the Easter riots - a third of Swedes want to ban "offensive" demonstrations

Rasmus Paludan, party chairman of the far-right Danish party Stram Kurs, went on a Koran burning tour in southern Sweden during Easter.

In his wake: violent riots with over a hundred injured police officers.

The scenes from Norrköping, Linköping, Stockholm, Örebro and Malmö have shaken Sweden.

Now a Novus survey shows that almost every third Swede believes that demonstrations that can offend any person or group should be banned (55 percent do not agree).

- This is probably very much a reaction to the fact that they have not talked about the complexity of the freedom of demonstration and expression in a democracy properly.

Instead, they focus on emotions where you may relate more to not offending anyone than the right to express yourself, says Torbjörn Sjöström, CEO of Novus.

Differences between left and right sympathizers

However, the differences are large depending on which party you sympathize with.

Slightly simplified, it can be said that those who sympathize with the parties on the left are more positive about banning "offensive" demonstrations (

).

- This is strongly influenced by the events of Easter.

Within S and MP, 4 out of 10 believe that demonstrations should be banned, which is quite surprising, says Torbjörn Sjöström and continues:

- These are parties where demonstrations are still a part of their everyday lives, such as May 1, for example.

Their parties would probably not have existed if the freedom of demonstration had not existed.

But it is quickly forgotten because of the brutal scenes that took place this Easter.

"Focuses on emotions"

The gender differences are also large.

71 percent of men believe that such demonstrations should be banned, while the same figure for women lands at 38 percent.

The survey also shows that every third Swede thinks that the police should have been tougher.

See more about the survey here in Politikbyrån: Desperados on SVT Play