On the eve of an EU-US summit here, Swedish Prime Minister Goeran Persson sat down at a public meeting with around 200 protesters to discuss their grievances and explain his views on issues ranging from missiles and trade to poverty and the environment.
The meeting Wednesday, though unprecedented, typified a "Swedish model" of transparent and unassuming interaction between the government and the governed that security forces have sought to employ here to ensure that summit protests stay as peaceful and manageable as possible.
"We have the situation under control and we don't expect any major problems," Gothenburg police spokesman Bengt Staff said.
"The vast majority of protesters are families, peaceful people, and their right to express their opinions needs to be respected," he said.
Although security in Gothenburg was extraordinarily tight, officials said efforts were also made to keep it as low-key and non-confrontational as possible, and only around 1,500 police officers, few equipped with riot gear, were deployed on the streets to keep order at the summit.
More strikingly, the municipal government of Gothenburg placed 19 local schools at the disposal of various protest organizations to be used to provide free lodging to out-of-town demonstrators. Each school was insured for potential damage up to 30,000 kronor (three thousand dollars).
"We're not violent," was how Helena Gustavsson, a Swedish Foreign Ministry official, summed up the country's philosophical approach public demonstrations.
"The right of free speech goes back centuries and is taken seriously," she said. "Government ministers ride the public trains to work and Swedes expect to have fairly easy access to them. We are a small country and we operate with the idea that everyone's voice should be heard."
Summit security has been a chief concern of the government since Sweden assumed the rotating EU presidency at the start of the year and both security and political officials have met on almost a weekly basis with protest organizers.
The purpose of this effort, officials said, was to establish good working relationships with protest leaders and thereby also subtly deprive demonstrators of the argument that ruling elites take no heed of their concerns, officials said.
"We are counting not just on the police to make sure that demonstrations don't get violent but also on the bulk of the demonstrators themselves who understand that we each have a job to do" and can help us stop any among their ranks from turning violent, a local official explained.
At the meeting Wednesday, broadcast to media on close-circuit television, Persson and three of his top ministers were confronted by protesters who attacked the government's position in favor of Sweden adopting the new euro currency and accused them of sacrificing Sweden's interests by their pro-European Union stance.
Persson listened to their complaints and readily engaged in a wide-ranging discussion that lasted several hours, advancing his own views in detail and with a refreshing dose of humility.
"The single currency is not a sensational project," he said. "It has its weaknesses."
"But the Swedish economy needs to be in sync with the European economy to be stronger and more dynamic," he argued. |
