Sweden’s Minister for Civil Defence, Carl-Oskar Bohlin, found himself pursued through the streets of Stockholm by a group of pro-Palestinian demonstrators and was forced to seek shelter in the Parliament.
The incident on the evening of September 8, which unfolded as Bohlin left a meeting at the Swedish parliament, has sparked outrage and reignited debates about political intimidation and the boundaries of protest.
The confrontation began as he exited the parliament building and attempted to walk home. A group of activists, later identified as part of the organisation Together for Palestine, began following him, shouting slogans such as “You should be ashamed” and accusing him of having “blood on his hands”.
Bohlin shared a video of the harrowing incident, where he is seen walking alone, being trailed bu an aggressive and hostile mob.
“This evening, I attended a meeting with the Moderate Party’s parliamentary group at the Riksdag. When I stepped out at Mynttorget to walk home, I was met by this scene: a group of people with antisocial, domineering behavior began following me.
“As a result, I simply couldn’t make my way home because my address here in Stockholm is not publicly known,” Bohlin said on X
“In addition to shouting in my ears like fools, most of them carried video cameras and mobile phones, which they would have used to track and expose my way home and, ultimately, my address, had I continued walking. Instead, I was forced to return to the Riksdag building to get away,” he added.
Bohlin concluded: “At this moment, the autonomous Palestine movement is preventing the democratically elected representatives of the people from moving about freely. In my view, this is not how things should be in our country.”
Ikväll deltog jag på en träff med den moderata riksdagsgruppen på riksdagen. När jag klev ut vid Mynttorget och skulle promenera hem såg det ut såhär. En grupp människor med antisocialt dominansbeteende började förfölja mig vilket resulterade i att jag helt enkelt inte kunde ta… pic.twitter.com/NL8NkwpHmI
— Carl-Oskar Bohlin (@CarlOskar) September 8, 2025
Bohlin told Swedish media yesterday that he has not reported the incident to the police and that he was unsure if he would. A spokesperson of the Swedish police said they had launched an investigation based on the video the minister posted, classifying the incident as potential harassment.
In an interview on Swedish TV’s Morgonstudion yesterday, Bohlin said: “You don’t stand at a distance of a few decimetres and shout as much as you can to people you don’t know, it’s not normal behaviour.
“And if you have stepped over that line, it is clear that you ask yourself: What is the next limit these people in a mob will step over?”
Together for Palestine is an activist group that has been staging regular protests outside the Swedish parliament.
Members responded to the incident on Instagram. They claimed Bohlin provoked the confrontation by standing in front of the demonstrators and staring at them with a “hateful gaze” before labelling them a “lynch mob” on social media.
The group accused the Swedish Government of misrepresenting the event to “demonise and vilify peaceful protesters” and stoke “hatred, racism, and oppression.”
Since the Hamas terror attack on October 7, 2023, Together for Palestine has participated in and arranged several demonstrations and manifestations. On Instagram, it numbers more than 26,000 followers.
The group has also been criticised in the past for arranging an anti-Israel demonstration on Holocaust Remembrance Day outside the synagogue in Stockholm in early 2024 and they have been accused of glorifying the armed wing of Hamas.
Bohlin, a Moderate Party politician and parliamentarian since 2010, has been a vocal figure in Swedish politics. His prior comments urging citizens to avoid demonstrations that risked spreading “conspiracy theories and racism” have drawn the ire of pro-Palestinian groups.
The incident on September 8 has also drawn sharp condemnation from across the political spectrum.
Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson called the activists’ actions “mob-like behaviour” and demanded an immediate end to such intimidation tactics, emphasising that, while Sweden upholds the right to express opinions, threatening politicians crosses a dangerous line.
Social Democrat leader Magdalena Andersson echoed this sentiment, stating: “No politician should be chased on the street. This is completely unacceptable and harms our open society.”
Anders Lindberg, political editor at the Social Democrat-affiliated daily newspaper Aftonbladet, described the demonstrators’ actions as “utterly deranged”.
Many politicians did lay some of the blame at the feet of the Left for, they said, fanning the flames and ramping up emotions around the war in Gaza.
Foreign minister Maria Malmer Stenergard, also of of the centre-right Moderate Party and who was herself attacked last year, when a pro-Palestinian protestor pelted tomatoes and onions at her, called out the leadership of the Social Democrats and the Left party for fuelling “extremely dangerous forces”.
She also recalled how in August Lorena Delgado Varas was expelled from the Left Party for alleged anti-Semitism. Varas has retained her place in parliament as an independent.
Ebba Busch, the Christian Democrat Deputy Prime Minister said: “The penalty for this type of crime against elected officials must be increased from a fine to a possible prison sentence – so that our elected representatives can also feel safe on the streets and in public places.”
Jimmie Åkesson, leader of the right-wing Sweden Democrats, was critical of the security services, who he said appeared to be missing in action. He said many members of parliament now felt vulnerable to attack and harassment as a result of demonstrators around the parliament building.
Some on the Left agreed with the protestors and put the blame on Bohlin. Left-leaning academic Viktor Pressfeldt, in a post on X, suggested that Bohlin’s actions — walking through a permitted pro-Palestinian demonstration and allegedly staring down the activists — may have escalated the situation.
He also took offence at media outlet Expressen for “exposing people who demonstrated” against the minister, saying that was “completely unbelievable and a violation of press ethics”.
Tens of thousands took to the streets of Brussels on Sept 7 to express support for the Palestinian cause. https://t.co/wi56u3a4yr
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) September 8, 2025
