‘Not welcome’: How Sweden’s far right took over Stockholm Central Station

What the report says

Al Jazeera reports that Sweden’s far-right Sweden Democrats (SD) mounted a highly visible anti-migrant campaign at Stockholm Central Station in the weeks before Sweden’s September 13 general election. The party covered the station with posters and installations carrying slogans such as “If you commit crimes, live off benefits, don’t learn Swedish or misbehave, you’re not welcome.” The campaign, which the article says cost about $100,000 and ran for about a week in mid-August, unsettled some minority residents and workers at the station, including people with immigrant backgrounds who said the messaging made them feel excluded and anxious.

The report says SD also spread similar messaging on public transport elsewhere in Sweden. In western Sweden, bus ads targeting people of Somali heritage referred to Mogadishu and the repatriation grant, prompting backlash from Somali-origin bus drivers who called in sick in protest. The regional transport operator Västtrafik later removed those posters, citing concerns about harassment, working conditions and vandalism. SD responded by accusing authorities of censorship and “election sabotage,” according to the article.

Al Jazeera places the campaign in the broader context of SD’s long normalization in Swedish politics. The party, which the article describes as having neo-Nazi roots, has moved from political isolation to cooperation with center-right parties, and polls it in second place ahead of the election. The piece suggests the controversy also reflects wider Swedish debates over migration, repatriation policies and the political mainstreaming of anti-immigrant rhetoric.