Swedish MP Hanif Bali of the liberal-conservative Moderate Party has had his car vandalised twice in recent months. Now he is admittedly considering buying another car and moving.
Merely ten days after Bali's car was repaired following this summer's act of vandalism, it was defaced again.
“It feels very sad to not have your stuff in peace. I have to change cars, I can't keep this one and I will probably have to move. That's the reality,” a frustrated Bali told the newspaper Expressen.
In July, when Hanif Bali returned from a short vacation, he discovered his car vandalised. The paint was scratched and the tires were slashed in an elaborate way so that they lost air when he started to drive, which could potentially lead to a fatal accident.
By the end of September, the car was completely repaired. However, less then two weeks later Bali discovered that the car was wrecked again.
“Had my car in peace for 10 days. Now again, knifed tyres and scratched paint. Stood 50 minutes in a queue to register. I can't cope anymore” Bali tweeted.
Fick ha bilen ifred i 10 dagar. Kniv i däck och lack. Nu stått i 50 min kö för att få göra anmälan. Jag orkar inte mer. pic.twitter.com/fn1nfA00cO
— Hanif Bali (@hanifbali) 9 октября 2019 г.
“It looks just like last time. The marks on the tires look the same, it even seems to be the same knife”, Bali said.
By his own admission, he is now seriously considering moving, because the perpetrators obviously know where he lives. According to Bali, protected identity is an option, despite the fact that it goes against his convictions.
“My idea as a politician has always been that everything should be as ordinary as possible and as open as possible. That I should be like everyone else and live like everyone else. Not just for my own sake, but also to be able to connect with his local community. But it is very difficult to maintain it like this”, Bali explained to newspaper Svenska Dagbladet.
Bali, who admittedly received threats on social media over his views and outspoken Twitter posts, suggested that attacking property is taking things to another level.
His recent post triggered strong reactions as well. While many, including Sweden's leading terrorism researcher Magnus Ranstorp, commiserated with Bali, he also received a lot of hateful messages urging him “to go back to his country”.
At merely 32, Iranian-born Bali is one of the most written-about political personalities in Sweden. He became an MP at only 23 and is by far the most followed Swedish politician on Twitter, with 125,000 followers. Not shy of controversy and known for speaking his mind, Bali has basically no rivals in terms of retweets, responses and mentions. However, for having an anti-immigration stance despite being an immigrant himself, he has often been called “traitor” and labelled “Nazi” and “racist” by his rivals and enemies.
For the American public, he is known for appearing on Tucker Carlson's show in a segment about immigration in early 2018.
— Torshi (@st229lmannen) 19 января 2018 г.
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