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Fredrik

Swedish foreign minister stabbed to death

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Yesterday afternoon, Swedish foreign minister Anna Lindh was stabbed at a shopping mall. Last night, while still undergoing surgery, it was reported that her condition was critical, but stable, and that she'd likely survive. Only about an hour ago, it was announced that she had died from abdominal injuries early this morning. The perpetrator has not yet been caught.

This news is quite awful. Not only has Sweden lost one of its finest politicians, and two children lost their mother, but our open
democratic system has gotten a severe bite. The last time we suffered from a similar occurrence (unless my memory serves me extremely wrong) was in 1986, when prime minister Olof Palme was shot to death.

The consequences at that time were tremendous. Prior to that date, the prime minister had been able to and allowed to wander around without company of bodyguards. Ever since, the prime minister hasn't. It is likely that the murder of Lindh leads to more politicians in the government and/or parliament being required to use bodyguards. A truly atrocious consequence :(

It is unclear whether the prepetrator had or could have had any political motifs, and if so what they were. Conspiracy theories which have arisen state that this is an attempt to affect the Swedish EMU election which is supposed to held later this month. That could be, but sounds like an extremely stupic tactic to me (particularly since it'd affect both the Yes and the No camps). In any case, this will likely delay the election.

More at http://news.google.com

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CNN mentions that she was a likely candidate for becoming the next Prime Minister. Someone probably feared that Sweden would go all mushy mushy with the rest of the world.

I suspect some nationalist asshat acting on his own volition.

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Little Faith said:

CNN mentions that she was a likely candidate for becoming the next Prime Minister.

That was probably just a memorial remark. Her becoming the prime minister would still be quite some time off, and Anna herself recently stated that she was not interested in the post (at least not at the time being).

I'd say the most likely cases are:
1. Psychopath lacking rational reasons, and/or possessing some obscure personal hatred towards her.
2. Psychopath with leftist tilt, taking revenge for Anna's 'betrayal' of her social democratic origin by teaming up with the conservatives in the pro-EMU camp.

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Fredrik said:

That was probably just a memorial remark. Her becoming the prime minister would still be quite some time off, and Anna herself recently stated that she was not interested in the post (at least not at the time being).

I'd say the most likely cases are:
1. Psychopath lacking rational reasons, and/or possessing some obscure personal hatred towards her.
2. Psychopath with leftist tilt, taking revenge for Anna's 'betrayal' of her social democratic origin by teaming up with the conservatives in the pro-EMU camp.



Well, my main point is that there is no big plan or conspiracy behind. Just a single unadjusted nutcase.

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:-(
This sucks dude, my condolences go to Sweden for losing one of its best politicians.

/Bows head

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One and a half year ago a 'potential prime minister' was killed here in Holland. Ten percent of the dutch population voted on his dead corpse a few weeks later at the elections (once you're put on a list, you can't be removed; even when you're dead :-/). There were plans for an enormous statue of the guy. Tens if not hundreds of thousants of poeple went to his funeral.
A year later only a few thousants came to the memorial ceremony. I doubt there will even be one this year...

People forget easily, life goes on...

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Shaviro said:

11th September = bad luck. I know it happened on 10th september, but she died today.

Yeah, although I don't recall any bad luck events last year. Maybe my memory is just rusty on the subject and if so, what bad stuff happened on Sep 11 last year?

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dsm said:

Yeah, although I don't recall any bad luck events last year. Maybe my memory is just rusty on the subject and if so, what bad stuff happened on Sep 11 last year?

Everyone ALWAYS REMEMBERed and NEVER FORGETted. Ahem, pardon the intentionally poor grammar.

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Very, very sad. It's odd how these things suddenly happen in country's known for their tolerant climates (Holland, and now Sweden).

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Disorder said:

Very, very sad. It's odd how these things suddenly happen in country's known for their tolerant climates (Holland, and now Sweden).

They might happen exactly because these "climates" are tolerant - they can better get away with it...perhaps.

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Fredrik said:

I'd say the most likely cases are:
1. Psychopath lacking rational reasons, and/or possessing some obscure personal hatred towards her.
2. Psychopath with leftist tilt, taking revenge for Anna's 'betrayal' of her social democratic origin by teaming up with the conservatives in the pro-EMU camp.

4. Psychopath looking for 15 minutes of fame.

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IMJack said:

4. Psychopath looking for 15 minutes of fame.

Then why did he run? :P

And a orrection to my original post:

In any case, this will likely delay the election.

Seems now that it won't.

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My thoughts go out to her family, this sort of things should'nt be able to happen..

Fredrik said:
I'd say the most likely cases are:
1. Psychopath lacking rational reasons, and/or possessing some obscure personal hatred towards her.
2. Psychopath with leftist tilt, taking revenge for Anna's 'betrayal' of her social democratic origin by teaming up with the conservatives in the pro-EMU camp.



psychopath indeed !
but leftish tilt ? i think rather right tilted !
and then i mean some sort of psychopath with hate for democracy.

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Nocturnal_poet said:

psychopath indeed !
but leftish tilt ? i think rather right tilted !
and then i mean some sort of psychopath with hate for democracy.

There are lots of left wing extremists too, some of them almost as bad as those on the extreme right.

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OMG That sucks!

Odd how this never happens to politictians in Canada. They only get hit with pies here.

Now why would anyone ever force a PM or President to have bodyguards? Seems mean, even if they are the leader and in danger.

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Better inconvienienced than murdered in a mall.

So this guy chased her up an escalator then killed her, then ran away. Why the hell didn't anyone grab the guy? Wasn't anyone else around?

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from what i read there wasn't any evidence the stabbing was politically motivated anyway.

Fredrik said:

There are lots of left wing extremists too, some of them almost as bad as those on the extreme right.

i don't see how one form of arrogance could be better than another.

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sargebaldy said:

i don't see how one form of arrogance could be better than another.

That's not what I said. I implied that there ARE (read: right now, in the context of the current social situation) right wing extremists which are far worse than the left wing extremists that exist. Both views are fundamentally flawed.

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In the middle of a shopping mall? That's a little fucked up. Seems like its always the good politicians that get killed.

m0l0t0v said:

One and a half year ago a 'potential prime minister' was killed here in Holland. Ten percent of the dutch population voted on his dead corpse a few weeks later at the elections (once you're put on a list, you can't be removed; even when you're dead :-/).

Heh...a year before Bush was elected president, John Ashcroft lost a gubenatorial election against a dead guy (I think it was Missouri). Just goes to show you how much people like him.

Aliotroph? said:

Odd how this never happens to politictians in Canada. They only get hit with pies here.

All the cool politicians get hit with pies. :P

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the_Danarchist said:

Seems like its always the good politicians that get killed.

I hate to say this and seem all cynical and bad (because some of the Dutch folks might take a massive stab at me - not to mention gun me down in broad daylight), but my Dutch friend whom I went to Germany with this year and last year thought that Fotyan (or whatever he was called - the bald Dutch guy that got shot) was an asshole, hence >not< a "good politician".
He claimed the guy was the type who would complain about the existing government without offering any suggestions as to how he would improve on the situation himself if he got to power - basically the guy who appeals to people who only skim briefly through newspapers without watching the more intelligent debates on TV.

These are the things a guy from Holland told me - I don't know for certain if it's true (I've got a good reason to assume it is though).

I should, however, mention that my friend didn't like the fact that the politician had been shot, feeling that this kind of thing shouldn't have happened (he would've preferred a peaceful way to topple him or persuade him to let go of it).

Sorry for going a bit off topic and sorry if my comment seemed a bit brutal, but I'm trying to add some spice in terms of opinion.

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Well I was thinking mainly of American politicians. JFK wasn't the best president we ever had, but he was way better than anyone we've had running the country in the past two decades. His brother Bobby was even cooler, and was just months away from being elected president himself when he was killed. If he had become president, I'm sure the country would be in better shape than it is now. On the flipside, Regan (who was really just a puppet of his unelected cabinet) was shot and survived. And no one has even tried to kill Bush even though he is running this country into ruin and taking the rest of the world with us.

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Fredrik said:

That's not what I said. I implied that there ARE (read: right now, in the context of the current social situation) right wing extremists which are far worse than the left wing extremists that exist. Both views are fundamentally flawed.

most extremists aren't left or right though, they're fascist (in favor of full gov't control over people both socially and economically).

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dsm said:

Story about Fortuyn

It's obvious that he had some beef with Fortuyn. He was one of those guys you either liked or hated. Controversial, but straight forward.

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Disorder said:

It's obvious that he had some beef with Fortuyn. He was one of those guys you either liked or hated. Controversial, but straight forward.

Sorry if I pissed you off :-(

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the_Danarchist said:

Heh...a year before Bush was elected president, John Ashcroft lost a gubenatorial election against a dead guy (I think it was Missouri). Just goes to show you how much people like him.

at least he didn't contest it when he lost by only around 100 votes. not that i don't hate the guy, but at the time i thought it was very refreshing. anyway, i'd vote a dead person over anyone who's in the gov't nowadays. a dead politician causes less damage than a live one.

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dsm:
They might happen exactly because these "climates" are tolerant - they can better get away with it...perhaps.

I disagree; fear causes violence...

dsm:
basically the guy who appeals to people who only skim briefly through newspapers without watching the more intelligent debates on TV.

Disorder:
It's obvious that he had some beef with Fortuyn. He was one of those guys you either liked or hated. Controversial, but straight forward.

Guys who liked him: "people who only skim briefly"
Guys who hated him: "people that watched the more intelligent debates"
:-P

BTW: Is Anna Lindh still on electable? I'd hate to see people voting on a dead person simply out of emotional reasons. It left a total mess here in Holland...

sb:
i'd vote a dead person over anyone who's in the gov't nowadays. a dead politician causes less damage than a live one.

I don't think you would think the same way if you were in my country one year ago...

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