Swedish foreign minister resigns in Muhammed cartoon scandal

[Chemical Ollie]

Swedish Foreign Minister Laila Freivalds has resigned in a row related to cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.
She was strongly criticised in the press after it emerged that foreign ministry pressure had led to the closure of a far-right party's website.

The site had been due to publish the cartoons, which sparked a furore after their initial publication in Denmark.

She was also criticised over the Swedish response to the Asian tsunami, in which about 500 Swedes died.

Ms Freivalds resigned just six months before an election in Sweden, in which the ruling Social Democrats face a resurgent opposition.

"Under the current circumstances I find it impossible to conduct my work and therefore choose to resign," Ms Freivalds said at a joint news conference with Prime Minister Goran Persson.

"It was her own decision," Mr Persson said after her announcement.

He said Deputy Prime Minister Bosse Ringholm would take over as foreign minister temporarily.

Ms Freivalds was rounded on by the press when a far-right website was forced to close on 9 February, after a foreign ministry official contacted the site's hosting company.

Critics said this was an intrusion on freedom of speech.

The minister said she did not order the official to contact the company, but a later report from the ministry said she was involved in the decision.

An arrogant ***** quits, and what do we get? An arrogant, imbecil idiot who hasn't finished high school and has never heard the word "Diplomacy".

[JohnT]

Hell, sounds like she was ordered to fall on her own sword so her party could be done with her as an "issue".

[Donegeal]

While I am glad that this issue simmered down and did not totally explode, I am VERY dissapointed that it was because the "west" backed down.

If you do not stand up for your freedoms, they will be taken from you.

[Dinner]

It is sort of lame that they had a right wing website closed but said they couldn't stop the Mohammed cartoons due to freedom of the press. The right wing site should have been allowed to stay open as well.

[Heresson]

nevermind

[Winston]

Should rightly be "resigns".

Well, good riddance.

[Chemical Ollie]

99% of the people in Sweden and close to 100% of the media really hate the far right party Sverigedemokraterna (SD), but when the foreign department asked the ISP to shut down the SD web site "In the name of national security", the media came to SD's defense and accused the foreign minister of breaking the constitution.

The scandal becomes greater if you consider that SD is the largest political party outside the parliament, with 1% of the votes (4% is needed). This must be the first time since WW2 that the government use censorship on the political opposition.

[Winston]

Except for the last election campaign you had, when allegedly the Prime Minister's office gave precise directions to the state-run radio and TV network to always refer to that party as being xenophobic, no matter the context. To which they were only too happy to oblige, of course.

[Zkribbler]

"Under the current circumstances I find it impossible to conduct my work and therefore choose to resign," Ms Freivalds said at a joint news conference with Prime Minister Goran Persson.

The English translation:

They said if I didn't resign, they'd fire my arse.

[Dinner]

Originally posted by Chemical Ollie
99% of the people in Sweden and close to 100% of the media really hate the far right party Sverigedemokraterna (SD), but when the foreign department asked the ISP to shut down the SD web site "In the name of national security", the media came to SD's defense and accused the foreign minister of breaking the constitution.

The scandal becomes greater if you consider that SD is the largest political party outside the parliament, with 1% of the votes (4% is needed). This must be the first time since WW2 that the government use censorship on the political opposition.

The people likely have a good reason to hate them too. That said it puts everyone on shakey ground when the muslims come and demand newspapers be shut down for breaking muslim religious law when the government has already shut down media outlets it doesn't like.

Real bad situation to be in. Instead either everyone (who doesn't espouse violence of course) gets to post their crap or else the muslim extremists can rightly claim bias.

[RGBVideo]

If you do not stand up for your freedoms, they will be taken from you.

In Sweden, they already have been. Notice how the forcefully closed site is only described by a bland label, "right wing"? Knowing Sweden, it could've been a site requiring lower taxes for all we know.

[JohnT]

No, no. It was a "far-right" web site. They're advocating lowered taxes and partial deregulation!

[Zoid]

And the deportation of all muslims and other untermenschen

But it was a stupid stunt to close the website and this is actually the second time she´s been fired from the government...