On Thursday, Integration Minister Mats Persson (L) visited Rinkeby in northwestern Stockholm to follow the police's work. He was accompanied by his party colleague Martin Melin.
"A big thank you to the police in Järva for your work. You are everyday heroes", he wrote later in a post on X.
He also posted a picture of himself wearing a bulletproof vest, which sparked reactions.
"Damn, how tasteless" and "Why a bulletproof vest?" are some of the comments on X.
Safari-like visit
A person living in the nearby area perceives the minister as trying to make himself a target.
He treats ordinary people living here as if they are out to get him. As if this is a war zone, says the person to Aftonbladet.
If he had just worn civilian clothes, no one would have cared.
Lawen Redar, cultural policy spokesperson for The Social Democrats, is also critical of the minister's "safari-like" visit to a socially vulnerable suburb.
The Integration Minister goes to Rinkeby to pose and he has no plan for how to break segregation. If he wants to know how people are doing, he can start by talking to people when he visits, she says.
"Not unsafe"
Redar calls Mats Persson irresponsible and means that he does not take his ministerial role seriously.
He can start by working with the portfolio he has. He is not the Minister of Justice, he is the Minister for Labour Market and Integration. Unemployment is historically high in our country and it affects people with foreign backgrounds in particular. What does he intend to do?
Mats Persson's press secretary writes in a comment to Aftonbladet that the minister followed the police on a work shift where they, among other things, responded to an alarm. "The police's assessment was that certain safety equipment was required, but it did not feel unsafe."
