Thousands of protesters staged a revolt in Stockholm last night after an advertising campaign for the far-right Sweden Democrats party went up at one of the city's metro stations.
Protesters gathered in Östermalmstorg metro station in the plush Östermalm area of Stockholm, where one of the adverts was prominently displayed.
The gathered crowds ripped down the posters, which were mounted above the escalators at the station, and read: "Sorry about the mess here in Sweden. We have a serious problem with forced begging! International gangs profit from people's desperation. Our goverment [sic] won't do what's needed.
"But we will! And we're growing at record speed. We are the opposition and we promise real change! We are the Sweden Democrats! Welcome back to a better Sweden in 2018!", referring to the next Swedish General Election.
The protest gathered momentum after word spread on twitter.
Lisa Nilsson tweeted: "Tomorrow Tuesday at 18.00 at Östermalmstorg : demonstration on the occasion of unappetizing SD campaign against begging. No to racism. Come! Spread!"
Sååååjaaaa fuck sd
Posted by Shimen Reshid Mela on Tuesday, 4 August 2015
Two people were arrested on Monday for making a previous attempt to tear the posters down, and transport company SL called a crisis meeting to discuss how the problem should be dealt with.
Speaking to The Local, radio host Amie Bramme Sey said she was "shocked" that the posters had ever been allowed on the subway.
She said: “We [the organizers] were shocked that our subway company allows these types of racist opinions about a group of people in society.
"They call them [beggars] a mess like they are going to clean them away.”
Other Swedes said they were taking longer routes to work to deliberately avoid seeing the posters, which have been labelled as racist.
Journalist and writer Jan-Ewert Stromback said: "Tomorrow I take the Light Rail to Stora Essingen plus bus 1 t . Östermalmstorg . Long road, but I do not see the SD's... propaganda."
The Swedish Democrats have been gaining momentum since the 2010 election, when they broke the four per cent threshold to get seats in the Swedish parliament.
They currently have 49 of the 349 seats in the Riksdag, but due to a refusal by Sweden's other political parties to co-operate with them, they remain isolated, and find little opportunity to influence policy in parliament.
