Swedish Foreign Minister resigns over handling of Muhammad cartoons

[Bushy Being Born]

http://www.sr.se/cgi-bin/International/nyhetssidor/artikel.asp?ProgramID=2054&Nyheter=&format=1&artikel=820394

Foreign Minister Laila Freivalds Resigns

Swedish Foreign Minister Laila Freivalds has resigned after accusations that she acted unconstitutionally over the closure of a far-right web site which published cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad.

Freivalds originally said that she was unaware the foreign ministry had contacted the web hosting company which then shut down the site belonging to the anti-immigrant Swedish Democrat party. But documents published this week showed she had indeed been informed. Political pressure on a company to close such a website would be against the Swedish constitution.

She told a news conference Tuesday morning that she believes the current situation is impossible for her. She said, ”It is damaging the government, the party and the ministry of foreign affairs and that is why I have chosen to resign.”

Prime Minister Göran Persson said, ”It was her own decision.”

Freivalds was also widely criticised in connection to the government’s bungled response to the Asian tsunami in which some 500 Swedes died.

The resignation comes just six months before the ruling Social Democrats face what analysts expect to be a tight general election. Laila Freivalds will be replaced by Vice Prime Minister Bosse Ringholm.

***

http://www.thelocal.se/article.php?ID=3330&date=20060321&PHPSESSID=b71056d4676f951cc019f45fb0cd72e6

Freivalds quits

Published: 21st March 2006 08:47 CET

Foreign Minister Laila Freivalds has resigned, said Prime Minister Göran Persson at a press conference at Rosenbad on Tuesday morning.

Vice prime minister Bosse Ringholm has replaced her as temporary foreign minister, said Persson.

"I have today received Laila Freivalds' letter of resignation and I have accepted it," said Göran Persson.

In recent days her position became untenable as it emerged that that she knew that a foreign ministry official contacted the internet hosting company which later closed the web site of the Sweden Democrats (Sverigedemokraternas).

Speaking to journalists at the time, Freivalds had denied prior knowledge of this. However, on Monday it became clear that she had been consulted on the matter.

Opposition leaders called for her resignation, saying that she had lost the confidence of the people. They were joined by the government's ally, the Green Party.

Laila Freivalds was at the press conference and explained her decision:

"I feel that the current situation has become impossible for me. It is damaging to the government, to the party and to the foreign ministry, and therefore I have chosen to resign," she said.

"Yesterday evening I held a press conference in Brussels on the election in Belarus and none of the journalists were interested in that issue. That was when I realised this is impossible.".

Persson said that Freivalds had been "a competent and strong foreign minister".

"I think it's good that we can draw the line under this story," said the Green Party's spokesperson Peter Eriksson to TT.

"And it was good that Laila understood that there wasn't the confidence in her that is needed today."

Freivalds had also faced months of criticism following her handling of the tsunami catastrophe.

The Local

I'll quote from an earlier post where I defended the harsh criticism the FM received over this incident against some who would apparently think nothing of the fact that the government can step in and stifle free speech like this:

The Swedish Democrats have filed a complaint against the government with both the Office of the Chancellor of Justice and the Parliamentary Ombudsman. The official Press Ombudsman and leading publicists have likened the matter to the censuring of free press during World War II, and the leader of the Liberal Party has said this is "unprecedented in modern times". People are justifiably upset that government officials (and the "Security Police", who was also involved) can shut down a Party website in this way. The Chancellor of Justice has by the way already tried the aspect of the actual publishing of the cartoons and deemed it not to fall under hate-speech laws.

Yes, this was a flagrant breach of the Swedish constitution, and she was right to "resign" - or, as the real meaning of that word is in this matter, "be fired".

[saigon68]

1. They still follow the rules there

Amazing

[lakeguy]

2. she should have stepped down after the tsunami episode...

acted just like any any other "aloof" politician seeming to care little about the people she served and more about her own vacation time.

good she finally did after this screwup.


http://www.thelocal.se/article.php?ID=2613
Confidence has been swept away

Published: 2nd December 2005 12:57 CET
...
But rather than giving a wake-up call, Göran Persson and Laila Freivalds were caught sleeping. They have repeatedly said that they were not given information by their civil servants. But the first report that a tsunami had hit Thailand came from news agency TT at 5.42 am, which said that many tourists were missing in Phuket.

Given all the information publicly available about the number of flights that go to the Phuket region from Sweden, it doesn’t take a genius to work out that many Swedes could be among the missing tourists.
...

Yet a full twelve hours later the government was still carrying on with Christmas holidays as usual (and Freivalds was on her way to her now notorious theatre visit), while other much less badly affected countries were sending aid to the crisis area.

There is plenty in this report to suggest that Freivalds, or even Persson, should resign. Persson's public apology certainly seems utterly insufficient.