The k2p blog

Mona Sahlin resigned (again).

The basic story is given in The Local:

Mona Sahlin has stepped down from her position as Sweden’s national coordinator against violent extremism, after revelations that she had misrepresented her bodyguard’s salary to help him secure a mortgage.

The Swedish newspaper Expressen revealed on Wednesday that Sahlin provided written certification that her bodyguard earned 120,000 kronor a month so that he could buy an apartment. The bodyguard, in fact, only earned 43,000 kronor a month.

When confronted by Expressen, Sahlin initially stated that she had paid the difference out of her own pocket, before retracting the statement when it was proven by Expressen to be false.

The Ministry of Culture and Democracy then announced that Sahlin had resigned with immediate effect.

There are new revelations every day and what seemed to be just a mortgage affaire where Mona Sahlin had tried to help her personal bodyguard to buy a very expensive apartment by falsifying his apparent income is now morphing into something else. And that something else is centered around the “personal bodyguard” and his relationship with Mona Sahlin.

1. The “personal bodyguard” (PB for convenience though he cannot be named) was not actually her bodyguard. She had 6 personnel from the police seconded for her security.
2. The PB was ostensibly employed by the Ministry of Culture as an “assistant” but at a salary far in excess of other “assistants” at Mona Sahlin’s request.
3. At the Ministry he is recorded as being an assistant to Mona Sahlin for handling press enquiries.
4. The PB was the only person at the Centre against Violent Extremism who did not report to the Chief of Staff but reported directly to Mona Sahlin.
5. His duties at the centre were said to be to include “future security questions” which, presumably, is the justification for his being called a bodyguard.
6. The PB was rarely to be seen at the Centre.
7. Mona Sahlin accompanied her PB for the showing of the 10 million kronor apartment he later bought.
8. A 50,000 kronor per year “VIP parking place” was paid for by the Centre but was only available to the PB (and Mona Sahlin). It was hired over the objections of the Head of Staff at Mona Sahlin’s insistence and nobody else at the Centre even knew where the parking was located.
9. The PB drives a very hot set of wheels – a sports car in the $120,000 class – which is not out of place in the VIP parking.

Mona Sahlin and anonymous PB image Expressen

Speculation in the blogosphere is rife. Mona Sahlin and her PB have now resigned. There are reports of a very chaotic situation at the Centre. Mona Sahlin also sits on some other Boards  – with quite generous remuneration – but her somewhat sporadic and ill-prepared attendance is now receiving scrutiny.

The Sahlin affaire is now the lead story and has relegated the travails of the Green Party (islamic infiltrators in the cupboard) and even Donald Trump from the top spot. I really don’t much care what politicians get up to in their private lives. But it is beyond the pale when public people are incompetent and think they can escape scrutiny. And when it is preaching politicians who trip up it only proves that they are all proponents of “Do what I say and don’t look at what I do”.

But the burning question – which she has brought on herself – is “What was her relationship with her PB”?

Tags: Mona Sahlin, personal bodyguard

This entry was posted on May 7, 2016 at 9:35 am and is filed under Behaviour, Politics, Sweden. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.