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Teachers upset over Prime Minister’s Pink Floyd tribute

One of Sweden's largest teachers unions has expressed its dismay at Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt's decision to burst into song at the Polar Music Prize ceremony in Stockholm on Wednesday.

Teachers upset over Prime Minister's Pink Floyd tribute

Members of Pink Floyd, who received the annual prize along with American soprano Renee Fleming, sat in the crowd as Reinfeldt sang ‘We don’t need no education’, capping his one-line performance with an emphatic ‘Yeah’

“If the Prime Minister decides to sing for the people of Sweden I wish he would least choose to sing lyrics that did not proclaim our lack of a need for education,” union chairwoman Metta Fjelkner said in a statement.

The head of the National Union of Teachers (Lärarnas Riksförbund) added that the Prime Minister should try to make up for his anti-educational crooning by singing something positive about “a profession he calls the most important in the country.”

Education Minister Jan Björklund refused to be drawn into a serious debate when quizzed on TV4 about the reaction of the teachers union.

“We’re going to have to call an extraordinary government meeting,” he laughed.