Gothenburg Taxpayers Pay 300,000 Kronor for Muslim Eid Festival

GOTHENBURG - Taxpayers in Gothenburg, Sweden's second-largest city, will foot the bill for a large Muslim Eid celebration in the immigrant-dominated suburb of Biskopsgården in 2027. The city has approved 300,000 kronor (about $28,000) for the event through its so-called citizens' budget - on the same day the new left-wing majority announced it is scrapping elderly residents' right to choose their own home-care provider.

On Tuesday, the City of Gothenburg announced that 26 proposals had been voted through in its three citizens' budgets in the north-east, south-west and on the island of Hisingen. Together the projects share three million kronor of public money, to be spent in 2026 and 2027.

One of the most expensive winners on Hisingen is a project called "Eid Festival for Everyone" in Biskopsgården. According to the city's project page, the Muslim celebration receives 300,000 kronor after collecting 628 votes.

"Everyone who lives in Biskopsgården celebrates Eid together. There are many who live in Biskopsgården and celebrate Eid, and it will be much better if we all do it together," the proposal reads.

Schoolchildren Cast the Votes

The Hisingen vote was held for the third year running, and this year it was aimed specifically at local schools. Pupils in middle school, lower secondary and special-needs classes voted on the proposals during school hours, alongside the mock school elections.

Malin Kennerud, who runs the citizens' budget on Hisingen, said in the city's press release that voting in schools gave the process clear democratic grounding and boosted turnout in the district.

"Completely Unreasonable"

The decision to spend 300,000 kronor of tax money on a Muslim religious holiday has drawn sharp criticism from Jörgen Fogelklou, group leader for the Sweden Democrats in Gothenburg. In a written comment to Riks, he took aim at Jonas Attenius, the Social Democrat who chairs the city executive board.

"It is completely unreasonable that the people of Gothenburg's tax money goes to things like this. At the same time I'm not surprised, given that the chairman of the city executive board, Jonas Attenius, has himself joined in celebrating Muslim holidays, for example when he gave a speech at a Muslim mass prayer in Slottsskogen park a couple of years ago," Fogelklou wrote.

He warned that more spending like this is coming now that the Social Democrats, the Left Party and the Greens hold their own majority on the city council.

"We will probably see more of these unreasonable priorities for tax money in the coming years, now that the left - S, MP and V - has its own majority in Gothenburg."

Not the First Time

This is not the first time Gothenburg taxpayers have paid for Eid celebrations. In 2024 the city granted a total of 400,000 kronor to two separate Eid events - 300,000 for a festival and 100,000 for a celebration in Biskopsgården.

In its annual report, the city justified the spending partly by saying Muslims in Gothenburg were experiencing rising Islamophobia. The Biskopsgården event that year had Islamic Relief as a partner - the aid organisation whose grants Sweden's international development agency, Sida, had previously halted after a review by the Swedish Centre for Preventing Violent Extremism.

Elderly Lose Their Freedom of Choice

On the same day the citizens' budget payouts were unveiled, the Social Democrats, the Left Party and the Greens held a press conference to present their first joint reforms for the 2026-2030 term. After this autumn's election the three parties hold their own majority in Gothenburg and no longer need the Centre Party's support.

Their first reform is to abolish the freedom-of-choice system in home care. Elderly residents lose the right to pick a private provider, and all home care returns to municipal control - even though the city's own home-care service was recently rocked by reports of clan structures and job interviews conducted in foreign languages.

"Now we will make sure every tax krona goes to the elderly and not to profit-chasing," Left Party politician Marie Brynolfsson told the press conference.

The Greens' Klara Holmin also announced that parking at Kungstorget square in central Gothenburg will be removed. A day earlier, municipal housing companies unveiled plans to let students jump the housing queue if they move into vulnerable areas such as Biskopsgården.

Christian Democrat Dan-Ove Marcelind, second vice-chair of the city's elderly care committee, called the home-care decision an insult to everyone who actively chose a provider.

"Home care is running a deficit as it is. Chasing out every external provider in this situation is madness. The municipality won't be able to cope," he said.