MDG in Kristiansand will change the police statutes so that the police can intervene against the use of Nazi symbols. Frp asks if one should also ban hammer and sickle.
Earlier this year, MDG and SV got no to a local ban on symbols that represented hateful and racist attitudes, writes Fædrelandsvennen.
But now the case has come to light after three southerners were acquitted of hoisting a swastika flag at the Archives in Kristiansand on the night of 9 April 2018. The three were charged with hate speech, but were acquitted in the Court of Appeal at the end of June. The public prosecutor decided in July that the case should not be appealed to the Supreme Court.
Also read: Three neo-Nazis convicted of hate speech
– I was very surprised that the Court of Appeal came to the conclusion that it was not an expression of hatred, says Hildegunn Tønnessen Seip, who sits in the presidency in Kristiansand for MDG.
She acknowledges that the question is difficult.
– And that is not all we can regulate. But we must have a discussion about whether we should regulate this when it restricts the freedom and security of others, she says.
Also read: – Abid pasted a swastika on Frp
In Frp they do not agree:
– It becomes a question of defining what should be considered hateful. If you have to ban the swastika, then you have to ban hammer and sickle as well, says Stian Storbukås, group leader in Frp in Kristiansand city council.
– We should rather fight what the symbols represent, he adds.
Also read: 500,000 Norwegians open for the police to wear the niqab
