quote:
Red-faced and stuttering, one top government official after another braves TV cameras to answer allegations of paying nannies or maids under the table.Such spectacles have become a way of life in Sweden since the new centre-right government came to power two weeks ago.
With two ministers forced to resign and several more facing scrutiny, the scandal has underlined Swedes' contempt for public officials cheating the system.
The trouble began just days after his coalition government took power Oct. 6, ending 12 years of Social Democratic rule. Swedish media ran reports that Trade Minister Maria Borelius had paid her nanny under the table.
She claimed she could not afford to pay her nanny legally but tax records showed she and her husband had a combined income several times that of an average Swedish family. Ms. Borelius resigned Saturday. Ms. Borelius and her husband together reportedly made about $230,000 (U.S.) a year during the 1990s.
Culture Minister Cecilia Stego Chilo was next. She stepped down Monday after admitting she had not only hired a nanny, but failed to pay her mandatory TV license fee for 16 years.
Finance Minister Anders Borg was in the spotlight Wednesday after media revelations that he hired a cleaner from Poland in the 1990s who didn't have a work permit.
“I should have checked it out, and I regret that I didn't do that,” Mr. Borg said.
Migration Minister Tobias Billstrom has also come under fire for not paying the TV license fee, the main source of funding for Sweden's public broadcasters.
Mr. Reinfeldt stood by his ministers and said firing them would signal to Swedes that anyone who bent the rules, however slightly, to make ends meet could forget about a career in politics.
Stego Chilo, the former culture minister, said the media had gone overboard in their pursuit of public officials.
“I am surprised that not more people think about why the trust in journalists drops at the same rate as it does for politicians,” she told daily Dagens Nyheter. “Citizens see what's happening, but journalists are ... immune to the signals that they should rethink.”
Although the article tries to difuse the scope of this scandal. I understand this is huge.
quote:
Cecilia Stego Chilo, who oversaw funding for Sweden's state broadcaster STV, was among 124 MPs who have admitted not paying the licence feeMs Borelius said she had employed cleaners and nannies in the 1990s without paying employer's taxes. Her position became untenable when Mr Reinfeldt hired a lawyer to investigate claims that she avoided paying property tax on a summer house by registering it to a corporation in the Channel Islands.
The second resignation is dangerous for Mr Reinfeldt who targeted his election at Swedes still attached to the "social model", which delivers strong social benefits paid via relatively high taxes.
At least one other member of the government, the immigration minister, Tobias Villstrom, is among MPs who have admitted not paying for TV licences.