This year's themes at the Book Fair are Games and Public Education, with the Canadian city of Québec as guest of honour.
At the same time as the inauguration was taking place, the first programme item also got underway at the Sweden-Israel Friendship Association's stand.
Just like last year, the association's programme items have attracted criticism.
Last year, it was about the headlines the association had given two of the talks. This year, both the Book Fair and the association have been reported to the police over the wording in a programme item with former Social Democratic MP Widar Andersson.
The police report is serious, notes fair director Oskar Ekström.
"We are deeply affected by both that and several other statements that have reached us regarding these programme items. It is important for us to say that we do not stand behind them," he told TT ahead of Thursday.
Raised in Malmö
However, Jonathan Conricus' participation has also been criticised. The Swedish-Israeli, who grew up in Malmö but moved to Israel at the age of 13, has previously been a spokesperson for the Israeli military (IDF).
There is a massive and unfortunately very successful information campaign directed against Israel, said Jonathan Conricus, who later in his speech also criticised the Left Party, among others.
We see it very clearly with the Left Party, with clearly anti-Semitic messages and people with connections to anti-Semitic and Islamist organisations.
The seminar, which he attended via link, had security guards at both entrances to the booth. Several police officers were also present among the audience, a few of whom wore Palestinian shawls.
“Is unfortunate”
However, everything went very smoothly, sums up David Lega, who is the chairman of the friendship association.
"I think it's unfortunate that you can't have this type of conversation without almost as much security as there are listeners," he says.
But I'm happy and relieved that we were able to meet as well as we did today.
You received a lot of criticism for some of the programme items last year and have been reported to the police again this year. How do you feel about that?
Of course, everyone is free to report it to the police, but that really doesn't mean that anything wrong has been committed, says David Lega.
However, I would be concerned if it were the case that people file a police report with the aim of silencing someone they disagree with. That would be the exact opposite of what the Book Fair and this democracy section stand for.
This year's Gothenburg Book Fair, the 42nd in the series, takes place from September 24-27.
This year's themes are public education and games, with the Canadian city of Québec as the guest of honour.
In addition to a long list of Swedish profiles, many international authors have also been invited, as usual, including Nobel Prize winner Abdulrazak Gurnah (2021) and Jamaica Kincaid, who this year will receive the fair's major literary prize, The Mermaid.
From the gaming world, for example, come Swedish game creator Josef Fares and Pole Andrzej Sapkowski, who is best known for "The Witcher" series.
Source: Gothenburg Book Fair 2026
