A Swedish MEP has filed a police complaint accusing a fellow MEP of racist hate speech after she was targeted on social media over her condemnation of far-right, anti-immigration chants in the European parliament.
The complaint, which was filed last week with police in Sweden, relates to the aftermath last month of the decision by some rightwing MEPs to erupt in chants of “send them back” following a vote aimed at increasing deportations across the EU.
Soon afterwards, Abir Al-Sahlani, an Iraqi-born Swedish MEP with the Centre party, addressed the hemicycle, accusing the “fascists of the far right” of sinking to a “new low” with their chants.
“I have never felt as unsafe in this parliament,” she told the chamber. “The shouting of the far right was not against a political opponent, it was ‘send them back’. It was about ordinary people who did no other ‘crime’ than looking for a better life in Europe.” » | Ashifa Kassam | European community affairs correspondent | Monday, July 13, 2026
