Published: Less than 10 min ago
Ambassador Kent Härstedt was hastily called home from his post in Singapore and resigned at the beginning of the year.
Now the top diplomat tells his version of what happened.
– I have had to endure a Kafka-like process, he says DN.
At the end of January, the news came suddenly.
DN revealed that Kent Härstedt, one of Sweden’s most famous diplomats, has been called home from his post as ambassador in Singapore. Then he had resigned.
Several sources with insight told DN that it must have been a matter of shortcomings in the leadership of the embassy.
Now Kent Härstedt breaks the silence.
– I feel that I have had to go through a Kafka-like process. This should not be allowed to happen. It damages trust in both the Foreign Ministry and in Sweden as an actor and myself, he says to DN.
“Being late for work”
Härstedt says that after a work-intensive autumn, he was called home for a meeting at the beginning of the year.
He was not told in advance what the meeting would be about. According to Härstedt, he was told at the meeting that he was no longer wanted, neither as ambassador in Singapore nor as special envoy on the North Korea issue. Instead of taking a position at the government office, he then chose to resign.
The reasons put forward are said to have been, among other things, that he spent too little time on the ambassadorship – and that he came to work late.
– When the question is asked to my employee if the ambassador comes in late sometimes and the answer is “yes, he does”, I am never asked why. Then I had replied that I must be allowed to come in a little later if I have evening activities until 10.30 in the evening.
“Almost like a custom job”
He further says that several times during the autumn he asked for reinforcements at the embassy, but did not receive any.
The reason he resigned was, according to himself, the way the whole thing was handled.
– It feels like this process was just about me leaving, not about fixing any problems. Almost like a commissioned job.
The trade union ST tells DN that it thinks the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ handling of the incident was “substandard”, among other things because Härstedt was not offered any support to correct the alleged shortcomings in his leadership.
Kent Härstedt was a Member of Parliament for the Social Democrats between 1998 and 2018, and has also been a political expert at several ministries.
He is also known as a survivor of the Estonia disaster in 1994.