Stockholm: A Swedish anti-corruption prosecutor said Tuesday he had opened an inquiry to determine whether a crime was committed when Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom obtained a Stockholm rental apartment from a union.
"The media has since Friday published reports that representatives for the trade union Kommunal have since late summer 2014 until April 2015 promised and then obtained a rental contract for Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom in one of the union's buildings in Stockholm," special prosecutor Alf Johansson at the National Economic Crimes Bureau said in a statement.
The prosecutor said he had "decided to open an inquiry into both the giving and taking of a bribe to determine if a crime has been committed."
The scandal erupted when daily Aftonbladet revealed that the influential municipal workers' union had allowed the minister to move into a rent-controlled 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, a 61-year-old Social Democrat and the undisputed star of the government, has insisted she acted in good faith and that she had received guarantees that Kommunal was following the rules.
She welcomed the inquiry.
"I welcome an investigation. I have nothing to hide and it is good that this will get sorted out," she told news agency TT, adding: "I will continue to do my job."
Wallstrom, who has driven a "feminist foreign policy" since the left-wing coalition came to power in October 2014, has come under fire for her vocal criticism of Saudi Arabia's human rights record and her repeated criticism of Israel.
AFP
