Jacob Christensen

Just to round off Saturday’s notes: Anna Sjödin, the leader of the Social Democratic Youth Federation who was sentenced earlier this week for attacking and abusing a bouncer during a scuffle in and outside a Stockholm pub, today published an open letter on the Youth Federation’s homepage. In the open letter, Ms. Sjödin rejects the court’s conclusions, repeats her accusations against the bouncer and his – to use her words – gang (kumpaner) for constructing and presenting a mendacious version of the events in police investigations and during the court’s hearing and finally, she calls the verdict offending. (See also DN’s version.)

In Other News

The Tsunami Strikes Back

The aftermath of the 2004 Tsunami still haunts Swedish politics. Some weeks ago it was revealed that the Chancery in the late spring of 2005 decided to delete records of phone conversations after 180 days rather than the usual one year. The explanation was that the archiving of the data was questionable from a privacy perspective. Later, however, the Chancery reverted to the old practice of storing data for a year. Allegedly, the server system became unstable when log files were deleted prematurely.

This Friday, Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt called an unscheduled press conference to announce that a back-up set of data about e-mail traffic had been found in the vaults of the Chancery.

If Mr. Reinfeldt had hoped that this revelation would divert attention from the Borelius scandal, he was wrong: Journalists weren’t too interested in the tapes and Mr. Reinfeldt instead faced a deluge of questions about Ms. Borelius’s economy, especially as the tapes aren’t in a condition where they can be read directly.

Swedish Blinds Instead of an Appartment in Central Stockholm for Ramstedt

If you are in Sweden, you will have seen or heard this piece of news, but it is still worth mentioning: The former HR Manager of the insurance and savings company Skandia, Ola Ramstedt, was sentenced to two years of prison for fraud related to renovation of housing owned by companiy and used by leading executives and their families.

The Skandia scandal is one in a series of stories about leading executives who have succeeded in gaining excessive benefits in cash or in kind from the companies they manage: A Swedish version of the New Gilded Age, so to speak.

Next week, I intend to explain how Anders Borg became Finance Minister. Enjoy your weekend.

Just in case you wondered: I reported that I owned a TV to the Licence Fee Agency when I moved to Sweden back in March 1999. Even then you could do it on the internet.

In political terms, Minister for Cultural Affairs Cecilia Stegö Chilò’s refusal to pay the licence fee seems to have backfired: According to media reports, there has been a rush to register TV ownership during the last week. And there are some pretty high-placed names on the list as well, including the business companion of Crown Princess Viktoria’s boyfriend.

Auch!

That Maria Borelius was appointed Minister for Trade last Friday, was a surprise. That Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt announced her resignation in a radio interview today was not exactly a surprise.

What is interesting to note is that according to Sveriges Radio’s summary of the interview, Mr. Reinfeldt gave the fact that her economy had been publicly questioned and that she had withheld important information for him as Prime Minister as reasons for her resignation. (Actually, what Mr. Reinfeldt says is that he sacked Ms. Borelius).

In her statement published by the Foreign Office, Ms. Borelius on the other hand claims that all relevant information about her economy – save the information about moonlighting nannies – was available in public registers in Sweden. Her resignation was motivated out of consideration to her family life.

Well, yes. Right.

A final observation: Two former leaders of the Conservative Party commented Maria Borelius’s actions during Friday. Carl Bildt couldn’t see anything incriminating while Ulf Adelsohn publicly called for her resignation (the linked article is from Saturday).