International News

STOCKHOLM, (APP/AFP): A Swedish anti-corruption
prosecutor said Tuesday he had closed an inquiry into Foreign
Minister Margot Wallstrom, concluding no crime was committed
when she obtained a Stockholm rental apartment from a union.
Special prosecutor Alf Johansson at the National Economic
Crimes Bureau opened a preliminary inquiry in January after daily
newspaper Aftonbladet revealed details about the apartment obtained
by Wallstrom, a 61-year-old Social Democrat and the undisputed star
of the government.
The influential municipal workers’ union Kommunal had allowed the
minister to move into a rent-stabilised apartment, bypassing a queue
for ordinary tenants.
Stockholm has an acute housing shortage and the average waiting
period to officially obtain a rental apartment is 13 years.
Wallstrom, who has since moved, insisted at the time that she had
acted in good faith and that she had received guarantees that Kommunal
was following the rules.
“There is no evidence that a crime has been committed,” Johansson
said in a statement.
The Swedish government is struggling in the opinion polls and has
lost two ministers in recent weeks: housing minister Mehmet Kaplan stepped down in mid-April after comparing Israelis to the Nazis, and deputy prime minister in charge of the environment, Asa Romson, resigned in early May after repeated gaffes.