A former mayor in Sweden proposed that the country rip down a statue dedicated to a king and replace it with the likeness of 17-year-old climate activist Greta Thunberg.
In a Monday opinion piece published by Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet, former Mayor of Umea municipality Jan Bjoringe argued that the time has come to replace a monument erected to King Charles XII, or Carolus Rex, one of the nation’s most famous kings.
“Remove the one-time ruler Karl XII and replace him with climate activist Greta Thunberg or at least with the diplomat and peace prize-winner Dag Hammarskjold!” Björinge wrote, according to a Google translation. “Both have contributed to a more humane and more sustainable world.”
Bjoringe said that the statue to Charles XII represents “evil deeds and outdated values” that encumber the public space. He suggested that statues “are erected to disseminate the values of power at the present time” and that Thunberg’s work as a climate activist was more in tune with modern Swedish norms.
Thunberg has been elevated by media outlets for high-profile work protesting what she argues is the collapse of the global environment. Bjoringe’s column sparked outrage among some who believe the piece failed to include that Charles XII had “devoted his life to defending Sweden.”
“You probably wouldn’t [exist to write] your crap chronicle without his efforts,” reads a translated tweet from one Swedish user. “Or you would have worked in a coal mine.”
Bjoringe suggested that QR code technology could be used to provide visitors of Swedish landmarks a fair representation of the Nordic nation’s history.
“Let’s use the possibilities of digitization and create interactive experiences at each statue removed,” he wrote. “QR codes or similar technology can be used to give visitors easily accessible information about the statue that was previously on the site, why and when it was erected, why and when it was removed.”
Monuments and statues dedicated to historic figures such as former U.K. Prime Minister Winston Churchill, former President Thomas Jefferson, and Christopher Columbus have been defaced during global unrest following the death of George Floyd while in the custody of the Minneapolis police department last month.
