Amid fresh uncertainty regarding Sweden's bid to join NATO and an ongoing violent crime wave in Stockholm, Sweden's Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson has been caught up in a scandal involving eel fishing.
Mr Kristersson was reported to a parliamentary committee on Monday by the main opposition party after admitting he was aware a top aide had been caught fishing for eels without a licence and then lying to authorities about it when he appointed that aide as his state secretary.
The aide, former journalist PM Nilsson, was fishing off the coast of the southern city of Karlskrona in September 2021 when he said two men in another boat approached him at high speed.
Mr Nilsson had just pulled up four traps containing 15 eels weighing a total of 11 kilograms, according to an official report.
"I had no idea who [the men] were. They had no sign on their boat or clothing that indicated they came from an authority," Mr Nilsson wrote in a post on Facebook apologising for his actions.
"They [pulled up] next to my smaller rowing boat and asked if they were my traps … I interpreted them as claiming the traps, they were quite offensive, and to avoid conflict I said that I found them here and that the traps were not mine."
Mr Nilsson wrote that after talking with him for a few minutes the men identified themselves as working for the Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Management.
"I should have said then that they were my traps, but the situation was so embarrassing and surprising that I continued to deny it," he said.
More than a year passed before Mr Nilsson was next contacted about the traps, this time receiving a phone call from the Karlskrona Police shortly before Christmas last year — two months after he was appointed as Mr Kristersson's state secretary.
"I was surprised, did not have time to think clearly and maintained my denial," he said.
"I shouldn't have done that — it's better to say it like it is. When the Christmas weekend was over, I called [the police] and changed my information."
"I have been fishing eel since childhood and belong to the southern Swedish eel-fishing culture," he added.
European eels are a critically endangered species, and it is a criminal offence in Sweden to fish for them without a licence.
Mr Nilsson was fined 38,800 Swedish kronor (about $5,400).
"It's been a tough and thought-provoking couple of days for me. You should not fish eel without a licence," he wrote in a separate post.
The prime minister admitted on Monday Mr Nilsson had told him about the incident before his appointment last October, telling state broadcaster STV that he thought his state secretary's actions had been "stupid" but should not disqualify him from holding the job.
The opposition Social Democrats referred Mr Kristersson to the Swedish parliament's Constitution Committee later that day, saying they wanted to look into how Mr Nilsson was appointed and whether it was appropriate that he should hold a security clearance given he had lied to authorities.
"Considering the problems we have with serious crime in Sweden, it is unacceptable that the prime minister's state secretary is lying to the police," the party's justice spokesperson, Ardalan Shekarabi, said.
