Sweden's Foreign Minister Laila Freivalds (left) listens as Prime Minister Goran Persson announce her resignation at a news conference in Stockholm yesterday. - REUTERS
STOCKHOLM (Reuters):
SWEDISH FOREIGN Minister Laila Freivalds quit yesterday after a row over the closure of a website with cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad, embarrassing Prime Minister Goran Persson six months ahead of elections.
Social Democrat leader Persson, behind in polls that favour the conservative opposition in September's vote, had for months resisted calls to sack the unpopular minister over her response to the Asian tsunami, in which 500 Swedes died.
FORCED TO RESIGN
But she was forced to resign when it was revealed this week that she had not given full information about her role in the closure of a site belonging to a far-right political party which published cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad offensive to Muslims.
"Under the current circum-stances, I find it impossible to conduct my work and therefore choose to resign," Freivalds said at a joint news conference with the prime minister.
"It was her own decision," said Persson, who had previously criticised a junior foreign ministry official for putting pressure on a private Internet hosting company to close the website belonging to an anti-immigrant Swedish political party.
Freivalds originally said she did not know her ministry had contacted the company, but documents published this week in the Swedish media proved that she had been informed.
