Swedish former prime minister Carl Bildt has been criticized for remarks in a recent Göteborgs-Posten interview in which he argued that Sweden has handled mass immigration “relatively well” and described gang crime as a “marginal phenomenon.”
In the interview, Bildt maintained his long-standing view that Sweden and Europe require continued inflows of workers to offset demographic decline. He also argued that people become frightened by rapid social change but would ultimately adapt to the country’s transformation following decades of high immigration.
Referring to the immigration surge and consequent unprecedented violent gang crime, Bildt, 76, said, “I still think that we have handled it relatively well in Sweden. Something that we didn’t really foresee is this marginal phenomenon that is gang crime. A dominant marginal phenomenon, though. Shootings and such. We didn’t have that before. It has appeared on the margins of all this. We didn’t foresee that. At least, I didn’t.” He added that Sweden would “sooner or later” overcome the problem and bizarrely compared conditions in Sweden to “paradise-like conditions” relative to parts of South Chicago.
The comments prompted sharp reactions from political figures and journalists. Martin Kinnunen, an MP for the right-wing Sweden Democrats, wrote that “in an ideal world, Carl Bildt would have been a marginal phenomenon in Swedish politics,” while Göteborgs-Posten columnist Naomi Abramowicz argued that Bildt’s characterization of shootings as a fringe issue ignored those directly affected. “Tell that to everyone who lacks a voice in the debate and has themselves been affected by this ‘fringe phenomenon,'” she wrote on X.
Enligt Carl Bildt är ”gängkriminalitet” ett randfenomen. ”Skjutningar och sånt”. Säg det till alla som saknar en röst i debatten och själva har drabbats av det här ”randfenomenet”. https://t.co/dDSCaqUcin
— Naomi Abramowicz (@naomimolly) December 7, 2025Göteborgs-Posten political editor Adam Cwejman published an op-ed titled “Carl Bildt seems to live in a different reality,” challenging Bildt’s suggestion that gang crime is peripheral. Cwejman contrasted Bildt’s remarks with a series of high-profile explosions, shootings, and assassinations across the country, writing that organized crime has become “one of the most defining societal problems” in Sweden this decade. He noted that numerous bombings, including attacks on residential buildings and public institutions, have caused casualties and widespread fear.
Cwejman argued that immigration on the scale Sweden has experienced in recent decades inevitably brings major social change, including new challenges. He emphasized that the core of organized crime consists largely of people with foreign backgrounds, often born in Sweden, and that the issue cannot be dismissed as marginal or self-resolving. He wrote that Bildt’s comparisons to South Chicago illustrated a disconnect between elite commentary and the realities of families living near ongoing violence.
“A special form of selective viewing is required to downplay the problem of gang crime,” he added.
Recent cases across Sweden highlight the severity of the issue. Authorities recorded more than one explosion per day in January alone, with migrants in some cases returning to their home countries, citing gang violence. In an interview with Dagens Nyheter last October, Iraqi-born Amin, who arrived in Sweden back in 2003, shared his experience of running a business in Sweden for years before gang activity in his neighborhood forced him to leave. “I forgot about those times! Now I live like a king! I am developing, I feel good. It is much safer in Iraq than in Sweden,” he said, reflecting on his new life back home.
Investigations have revealed that thousands of individuals linked to criminal networks have received welfare payments for years, creating what officials call a legal-looking revenue stream for gangs.
High-profile incidents include the fatal shooting of a Polish man in front of his son in Stockholm, the killing of a gang member’s mother in Akalla, and the mistaken-identity murder of a man in Malmö by a teenage suspect. A Swedish court recently issued lengthy sentences in the kidnapping of a woman and her young daughter by members of the Somali-linked Death Patrol gang. In April this year, a mother and her child in Tumba were critically injured after a grenade was thrown through their bedroom window in an attack believed to have targeted the wrong home.
These are just a small selection of the reported societal decay throughout Sweden that Remix News has reported on in the past year.
