Ministermordet - RIB Bibliotek

English Summary
Mats Eriksson, Anders Johansson and Larsåke Larsson
The murder of foreign minister Anna
Lindh in September 2003, in the final
stages before the vote on whether
Swedish should join the euro, was the
most recent crisis event in a series of
grave national emergency situations
over a ten-year period. All crisis events
of this magnitude - such as Estonia in
1994, the Gothenburg fire in 1998 and
the 9/11 attack in 2001- have had
political implications in one way or
another, and in the last case also political
causes with an international perspective.
The murder of the minister on the
other hand is of a directly political
nature. Not only because it befell a
distinguished elected representative but
because it impacted on the democratic
order and process (whether the perpetrator
had political motives or not).
The attack thus concerns and impacts
upon the political and democratic system
in a different way to earlier crises. At
government and departmental level and
to a certain extent also in Parliament, it
has been necessary to confront a crisis
event and its consequences both nationally
and vis-à-vis the outside world, at
the same time as being faced with an
internal crisis to deal with, as well as
personal mourning. The event was to
the greatest possible extent hallmarked
by this double dimension at any rate at
central, national level. The country's
top leadership, personified by the prime
minister and his closest staff together
with many employees in the foreign
office, were deeply affected personally
by the event. Because of the close
relationship between the victim and
government and departmental staff, the
conditions for dealing with the crisis
were highly charged emotionally.
These conditions were to shape
work in connection with the crisis and
the symbols and symbolic action in
crisis therapy. That many of the external
contacts with e.g. the media came
about partly amidst an environment of
mourning also impacted on the course
of events. Leading members of society
have shown empathy with and care for
victims and their families also on previous
occasions. This is an important
part of state-organised national crisis
management and therapy. In the Lindh
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