Published 20 January 2023 at 09.14
Domestic. The Social Democrats demand that Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson's state secretary PM Nilsson be forced to leave his post after the scandal where he was caught with illegal eel fishing.
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PM Nilsson's eel fishing
- Leading liberal sentenced for illegal eel fishing
The reason is that Nilsson lied in a conversation with the police about his involvement in eel fishing, reports Dagens Nyheter.
– It is not appropriate to have a state secretary who has actively misled the police as late as December, says the social democrats' legal policy spokesperson Ardalan Shekarabi to the newspaper.
Earlier this week it emerged that Nilsson had received a penalty order for illegally fishing endangered eel in Karlskrona.
PM Nilsson then published a Facebook post in which he apologized for lying to the police. However, he wanted to explain the lies by providing another – perhaps not particularly credible – explanation.
PM Nilsson's long explanation
“In the late summer of 2021, I picked up four Russians in the Karlskrona archipelago. I put them in the boat and started driving around a headland so as not to slide into the rocks and to lie leeward so I could untangle the fishing gear and throw the small eels back into the sea. Another boat with two men suddenly came towards me. They drove at high speed, laid down next to my smaller rowing boat and asked if they were my Russians. I didn't understand who they were. They had no sign of boat or clothing that they came from an authority. I interpreted them as claiming the Russians, they were quite offensive, and to avoid conflict I said that I found them here and that the Russians were not mine. After a few minutes of dialogue, the two men stated that they came from the Norwegian Sea and Water Authority. I should have said then that it was my tools but the situation was so embarrassing and surprising that I continued to deny. They took names and social security numbers and confiscated tools and fish. Then I didn't hear from them or anyone else until almost a year and a half later when a friendly man from the Karlskrona Police called in the days before Christmas. I thought the matter was out of this world and was surprised, did not have time to think clearly and maintained my denial. I shouldn't have done that, it's better to say it like it is. When the Christmas weekend was over, I called the man at the Karlskrona Police and changed my details. The Russians were mine and I will of course take a penalty order for breaking the fisheries law.
I have been fishing for eels since I was a child and belong to the southern Swedish eel fishing culture. Laying a few Russians used to be a natural part of the summer, but is now prohibited for private individuals. According to the Norwegian Sea and Water Authority's measurements, there are signs that the eel population is pleasingly growing in Swedish waters. One day you might be able to add Russians again, but not now. I apologize for the extra work I caused at the Maritime and Water Authority and at the police. They have more important things to do and it is important that everyone follows the law.”