The executive assured that he did not approve of the gesture of an far -right activist but that there was no need to prevent him, under freedom of expression.
MO12345lemonde with AFP
The Swedish Prime Minister deplored, Sunday, January 22, a “deeply disrespectful act” in the aftermath of the autodafé of a Koran during a demonstration in Stockholm. He expressed his “sympathy” to believers following several protests in the Muslim world. “Freedom of expression is a fundamental part of democracy. But what is legal is not necessarily appropriate,” said conservative leader Ulf Kristersson on Twitter, in a message published in the night.
Saturday afternoon, as part of a demonstration authorized by the Swedish police near the Turkish Embassy, the right-wing Dando-Danois Paludan extremist burned a copy of the Koran, in an act aimed at To denounce the negotiations between Sweden and Turkey concerning the membership of Sweden to NATO. The Swedish police had estimated on Friday that the constitution and respect for freedom of expression and to demonstrate in Sweden did not justify, in the name of public order, this gathering.
“Provocation appalling “
The incident aroused a diplomatic incident with Turkey, which denounced a “crime of manifesto hatred” and canceled the visit of a Swedish minister scheduled for next week, further complicating discussions around membership Swedish at the Atlantic Alliance, blocked by Ankara.
Many other Muslim countries have expressed their indignation. Morocco expressed its astonishment on Sunday that the Swedish authorities allowed this act “unacceptable” and “odious”, “which took place before the Swedish police”. Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates also condemned this gesture, as well as the Gulf Cooperation Council and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation. “Freedom of expression must be exercised in a responsible manner,” commented, for his part, Jakarta.
In Turkey, several dozen people gathered on Saturday at the end of the day in front of the Sweden Consulate, located in Istanbul, as a sign of protest. They set fire to a Swedish flag and called Ankara to break any diplomatic link with Stockholm. Others demonstrated near the Sweden Embassy located in Ankara. On Saturday, the leader of Swedish diplomacy, Tobias Billström, had already condemned “an appalling Islamophobic provocation” and stressed that the authorization of the demonstration did not mean that the latter was approved by the executive.