On April 6th Mats Hellström, Chairman of Norden International, was published in a op-ed in the Swedish daily newspaper Svenska Dagbladet.
The op-ed highlights the contradiction between the government’s efforts to establish a civil defense and its simultaneous undermining of civil society through cuts to popular adult education (“folkbildning”). The government’s initiative to build a civil defense system while simultaneously weakening civil society, particularly through significant cuts in popular education, highlights a concerning contradiction. These efforts undermine the local civil societies essential for a robust civil defense, which thrive on the engagement of individuals, elected representatives, and community networks. The rationale behind these reductions, attributed to fraud, is criticized as a pretext for an authoritarian approach that stifles local activities outside governmental control.
The op-ed touches on the future of conservatively-inclined popular education and its historical roots in religious contexts, calling for active resistance against policies shaped by the Sweden Democrats’ reluctance and destructive activism. This situation underscores the importance of unity among diverse movements to protect the democratic core and civil society’s role.
The op-ed can be read fully here (in Swedish).