A final loss of innocence. This is the term being used to describe the Swedish predicament after the brutal killing of Foreign Minister Anna Lindh while she was out shopping, unguarded, in a Stockholm department store.
Such a perspective is not new. It was first used in connection with the assassination of Prime Minister Olof Palme in 1986. The symbolic parallel to Wednesday's attack is obvious. A government leader was killed on his way home from a cinema where he had gone with his wife without notifying the security services. Then, as now, a spontaneous, private appearance by a top politician in a public space was met by violence. But Palme's murder came to be seen as an exception, a one-off act of madness.
After Lindh's death, Sweden seems to be at point zero. Current rhetoric has it that we are seeing the end of an epoch in which politicians could 'bond' with the electorate. That only the Prime Minister was accorded special police protection was a symbol of equality between citizens and their representatives.
In Lindh's case, there was indeed an egalitarian perspective. She had the talent, now rare among politicians, to appear honestly committed to the issues she raised, and was charmingly open in discussing them. Exceptionally intelligent, efficient and well educated, there was no arrogance whatever in her character. More than most of her political colleagues, she made a point of being just another citizen. In her home town of Nyköping south of Stockholm people were used to seeing her shopping or strolling with her two young sons.
Hence she was the obvious choice to lead the Yes campaign ahead of this weekend's Emu referendum. Government Ministers are openly divided on the question of Sweden adopting the euro and leading economists have disagreed on the advantages and disadvantages. Lindh's image of honesty and informality was a priceless asset for the pro-euro campaigners.
In contrast to Palme, considered arrogant by many Swedes, who tended to hate or admire him, Lindh was in the rare position of being loved and appreciated across the political spectrum. The fact that she was repeatedly tipped as Prime Minister Göran Persson's successor added to her stature. She had seemed the only figure capable of healing the deep rifts within the Social Democratic party, frequently split on EU-related issues.
The failure of the Swedish authorities to solve the Palme murder resulted in numerous conspiracy theories, most of which viewed the deed as politically motivated. At present, we cannot know if the killer of Anna Lindh will be found. But there is a crucial difference in the circumstances this time. She was stabbed in a crowded place under camera surveillance, suggesting her murder was the work of a lone madman.
Conspiracy theories hardly seem relevant. However, as in the Palme case, there are deeper dimensions to the fate of Anna Lindh than personal tragedy. Her importance as a trustworthy person on the pro-euro ticket has to do with some major unresolved issues in Sweden's relationship with the EU, reflecting uncertainties that go to the heart of the once-famous 'Swedish model' established by the Social Democrats in the 1930s.
As in the 1994 referendum on Swedish membership of the EU, material arguments have been the prime weapons of the Yes campaigners, who warn that the nation faces losing its economic advantages if its remains outside. Wider reasons for building a borderless Europe have been singularly absent from the debate.
The Social Democrats made a U-turn on EU membership in the early 1990s. Until then, the European continent had long been considered a historical burden. Closer ties held little appeal for a traditionally Protestant state striving to become the incarnation of modern values. The founding father of the post-war Swedish welfare model, Prime Minister Tage Erlander, considered Europe to be composed mainly of reactionaries and Catholics. It was commonly held that Sweden was so far ahead, in both social and economic terms, that European co-operation was of little concern to Swedes. Instead, solidarity with the Third World and its liberation from colonial dependence became a central feature of foreign policy.
The notion of being the world's most emancipated nation was integral to the Swedish model. The country's elites could feel morally superior because they were no longer fettered by tradition. Leaving nationalism behind was central to their achievement. Paradoxically, the psychological impact was exactly the same as for traditional nationalism: Swedish elites could be very proud of their nation's pre-eminence.
This 'reverse nationalism' has come back to haunt the country. In contrast to the 1994 EU referendum, opponents of Emu have won support for their position that the Yes campaign represents the manipulations of Sweden's political and business establishment. In true Palme tradition, Lindh was a leading advocate of international human rights on the European stage.
But her efforts to bridge the gap between cosmopolitan progressivism and Sweden's misgivings about Europe met stiff resistance. She was severely attacked for co-authoring a pro-Emu article with a business leader. By doing so, according to the extreme fringes of the anti-euro movement, she betrayed both class and nation. The motives of Wednesday's assassin may be unconnected with this, but such neurotic sentiments have poisoned the Swedish political atmosphere.
Arne Ruth was editor-in-chief of leading daily newspaper Dagens Nyheter in Stockholm for 16 years. He is now a writer and academic.
