Leader: A municipal council in Sweden's second largest city resigns after threats - should cause an outcry

It was just after eleven on a Sunday evening when Viktoria Tryggvadottir Rolka's phone rang from a hidden number. She tells how the person on the other end said "don't hang up, I know where you live, and you must learn to obey me". He was angry and claimed that she was for "forced mixing". And then he called her a traitor.

Soon the trial about unlawful threats will begin. But Tryggvadottir Rolka has already decided to resign after eight years as municipal councilor for the Social Democrats in Gothenburg.

A municipal council in Sweden's second largest city resigns after threats - that fact alone should give rise to an outcry.

Just a couple of days before the election in September, another S-top in Gothenburg was threatened. Jonas Attenius was going to record a film clip on a pier when a man threatened to drown him, saying he was a "traitor". Earlier the same day, Richard Jomshof (SD) had spread a clip on Attenius and wrote about "social democratic treason".

A third S municipal council in Gothenburg - Blerta Hoti Singh - is also a plaintiff in an investigation into threats.

These are not isolated incidents.

In recent years, the Center Party has had two party leaders resign citing threats against them – Annie Lööf and Anna-Karin Hatt. In Lööf's case, the departure was preceded by SD's media channels inciting her. Theodor Engström, who murdered the psychiatric coordinator Ing-Marie Wieselgren in Almedalen, had plans to murder Lööf as well.

When Jan Jönsson, former city councilor for the Liberals in Stockholm, stood up for drag queens after a hate campaign led by the Sweden Democrats, he had to endure a series of threats. Several people were convicted in court. For example, the one who shared a picture of a gallows with the text "Your time is coming you bloody traitor".

It is about individual groups that consistently cross borders.

It is not about a polarized social climate in general. It is about individual groups that consistently cross borders. It has been seen in the Palestine movement, and also within the far right and nationalist circles.

The Sweden Democrats, their troll accounts, the party-linked media channel Riks, surrounding nationalist movements and newspapers have for a long time systematically targeted opponents. In particular those who stand up for immigration, integration and vulnerable minorities.

The targets - the people and their parties - are accused of being "traitors" who "ruined the country". This is connected with conspiracy theories about population exchange and reasoning that Sweden is basically facing an existential threat. The rhetoric is meant to arouse fear and hatred in the recipient.

It is clear that it works. And increasingly rarely, SD's partner parties say no.

So a harsher climate is normalized.