The defense ported from the National Day celebrations – Expressen

Armed Forces may not be included in the official celebration of the National Day in Umeå.

The reason is that the celebration should be “carried out in the spirit of welcome” new Swedes “writes Armed Forces in an email that spread via social media.

– I think you see ghosts if it is so. It is strange, says Jan Demarkesse, Head of total defense protection center.

The National Day June 6 will be celebrated tradition according to district Gammlia in Umeå and is a collaboration between the municipality and the Västerbotten Museum.

According Armed Forces idea has been that the military should be involved in the celebrations, which they have planned for.

But a week announced the municipality that the Armed Forces are no longer “fit into the program.”

In an Internet e-mail from total defense protection center states that the municipality does not “considers it appropriate that the Armed Forces participating in this year’s National Day celebrations at their location”

“Their justification is that this year’s celebration will be conducted in the spirit of welcoming” new Swedes “which they saw could be undermined by our presence,” reads in the mail.

“Do you see ghosts”

– We perceive it that way. I think you see ghosts if it is so. It’s strange. We were there from the beginning and was clear that we do not see a contrast in this. On The Contrary. We are really defenders of democracy in society, says Jan Demarkesse.

Anna Jirstrand Sandlund, program manager at Umeå Culture, says that this is a misunderstanding.

– We want to make it This an attractive arrangement for our visitors and therefore needed short our program, she says and continues:

– There is no actual value in that we have removed the Armed Forces, but we need to vary from year to year. More dramatic than it is not.

gut feeling said no

But according Lillemor Elfgren, program coordinator at the Västerbotten museum, so there was certainly a valuation of the decision.

Armed Forces request included to be part of the celebration and participate with the band, COLOR GUARD, uniformed personnel and military vehicles in place.

– We looked at the inquiry as everyone else and there was not room for them to participate in Stage program . Then we discussed internally at the museum on other participation and then we already had quite a number of other parties booked and decided that this year suited it does not have that kind of activity on the National Day, says Lillemor Elfgren.

How would their presence undermine implementation in spirit to welcoming “new immigrants”?

– We put a multicultural perspective on the celebration. We have still a wide audience, all cultures in Umeå is currently on National Day. It is great fun but unfortunately, we know that many of the newly arrived citizens in Sweden comes from traumatic circumstances and situations of war. Our gut feeling told us that it felt right to come here and you will be welcomed as new citizens and then there’s the combat area. Therefore we said no this year.