extremists

Of Rodolfo Casadei

Source: Times
It is the industrialized country that has recovered best from the consequences of the global financial crisis 2008, the second best in the entire European Union for unemployment rate (5,9 percent) and the first for employment rate (82 percent of the workforce); its GDP is growing at the rate of 3 percent per year thanks also to investments in development and research, the highest in all of Europe (3,3 percent of GDP) and is positioned first in the world rankings of sustainable development, entrepreneurial opportunities and economic competitiveness. Yet in the elections scheduled for Sunday 9 September its main governing party risks recording its worst result of the last few 100 years, while the two opposition parties of the far left and especially the far right are credited with the best result in their young history.

How is this possible? It is possible if you are in Sweden, and if the best socio-economic data in the world or in Europe are accompanied by disturbing statistics like those that have recently hit the headlines: in a country of 10 million inhabitants where up to 10 years ago shootings were almost unheard of, some have been well recorded 320 last year, together with 110 murders and 7.226 reported rapes, il 10 percent more than 2016. Il 36 percent of women say they feel in danger at nightfall, and the police reports prove them right: Reports of sexual violence tripled between 2012 and the 2016, thus affecting the 4,1 percent of all women, against 1.4 percent six years ago. Read More