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REMEMBERING OLOF PALME

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Olof Palme paid homage in Stockholm

Prime Minister Olof Palme who was murdered 25 years ago on the 28th February was paid homage today at a seminar in Stockholm. Former ministers, party colleagues and family members all paid tribute at the ABF-huset in Stockholm.

Published: 26 February 2011 17:06 CET

Olof Palme paid homage in Stockholm

“Olof Palme’s thoughts and actions have influence upon many people today” Pierre Schori, former deputy foreign minister told guests at the seminar.

Monday 28th February is the 25th anniversary of the assassination of Olof Palme, a case which is still officially open with Swedish police.

Saturday’s seminar was organized by the Olof Palme International Centre. Former ministers, party colleagues and family members rallied in the ABF-house – which has also renamed one of its meeting rooms to The Palme Room.

Ingvar Carlsson, who knew Palme for 30 years and became his successor as prime minister, spoke of his tremendous political nerve, presence and ability to communicate.

“I honestly admired Olof Palme’s ability to inspire” Carlsson told those present.

Carlsson emphasized Palme’s breadth. “He was an ideologue and practitioner, brilliant in both the spoken and written word on both the national and international stage.”

“He had the ability to face a problem in small town Sweden one week and stand on the UN’s podium the next” Carlsson continued.

Lena Hjelm-Wallen was elected to parliament in 1968 and was minister for education in Palme’s government, and later foreign minister.

“Olof Palme opened the eyes of many of us to the world, but we must also remember his extremely important impact on domestic politics” she told the attendees at ABF-huset

Olof Palme was murdered by an unknown assassin as he made his was home from the cinema with his wife on the evening of the 28th February 1986. His murder, which remains unsolved, is often seen as a watershed in Swedish society.

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Swedish PM won't end Sweden Democrats collaboration over 'troll factory'

During a press conference following a party leader debate in parliament, Kristersson, from the Moderates, was asked whether he, as prime minister, would put any pressure on the Sweden Democrats to stop using the anonymous accounts, which had been used to spread content of benefit to the party and degrade its political opponents.

He replied saying that he cannot make demands or take responsibility for the actions of the Sweden Democrats’ communications department.

“If your real question is: ‘Do you want to stop working together to solve Sweden’s major problems because I have strong objections to smear campaigns in Swedish politics’, then the answer is no,” he said.

He did, however, say that he had discussed the issue with Åkesson both in public and in private.

“[I’ve told him] that I dislike smear campaigns, that they need to answer legitimate questions put to them by the media, political opponents and coalition partners. And that I dislike anonymous accounts.”

He added that the Sweden Democrats should “moderate their tone”.

The Sweden Democrats had not only been using the accounts to smear opposition parties, but also the governing coalition of the Liberals, Moderates and Christian Democrats, which the party provides its support to under the Tidö Agreement, named after the castle where it was drawn up.

The Tidö Agreement includes a clause requiring all four parties to “speak respectfully” about each other.

In one clip from the Kalla Fakta documentary revealing the existence of the troll factory, Sweden Democrat communications head Joakim Wallerstein tells the group of troll factory workers to “find shit” on the Christian Democrats’ top candidate for the EU parliament, Alice Teodorescu Måwe, while others make fun of Liberal leader Johan Pehrson.

In another, one of the employees in the troll factory discusses what type of music to use when he should “shit on” the Moderates.

Anti-racism magazine Expo also reported that the Sweden Democrats had used their anonymous accounts to share white power material.

Since Kalla Fakta’s documentary was released, Sweden Democrat leader Jimmie Åkesson has responded by claiming that Swedish media are carrying out their own campaign against his party, calling the documentary part of a “domestic smear campaign from the left-liberal establishment”.

LISTEN: Uncovering a Sweden Democrat troll factory

Kristersson did not wish to comment on Åkesson’s response, but he disagreed that Swedish media and political parties are carrying out a smear or influence campaign.

“I definitely perceive influence operations from other countries, and we often feed back to you [the media] and tell you what we know about those things. I obviously do not perceive any influence operations from parties, media or anyone else in Sweden.”

As far as Åkesson’s claims that Kalla Fakta had “infiltrated” the Sweden Democrats, Kristersson said that it would be “completely foreign to me to interfere with how free media operate in a free democracy”.

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