This summer, Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson (M) traveled to the USA and Finland on the state flight.
Along for the trips was his wife, Birgitta Kristersson Ed, without having any formal assignment.
Therefore, a deduction of around SEK 16,000 must be deducted from Kristersson’s fee, something that was done first after SVT started asking questions about the trips.
In July last year, Prime Minister Kristersson traveled to Washington DC to meet US President Joe Biden.
Kristersson’s wife, Birgitta Kristersson Ed was on the trip in the state flight. In the same month, she also accompanied the Prime Minister on a trip to the Finnish capital, Helsinki. As Kristersson Ed had no formal assignments during the trips, the Prime Minister must pay for her according to the rules. The hotel rooms were paid for by the government office, but 25 percent of those rooms must be paid for privately and for the air travel, the full price for a similar trip by scheduled flight must be paid. The total for both trips is SEK 16,000.
SVT requested the e-mails from the Cabinet Committee concerning Birgitta Kristersson Ed and the trips to the USA and Finland, but was denied their request. It was held that the internal emails were not public documents.
Made deductions after questions about the trips
The deductions for the trips were made only after SVT’s Mission investigation started asking questions about the trips.
– Yes it is true. Then we established that the deduction had not been made in the system, says minister Hans Bäck to SVT.
According to Ministerial Councilor Hans Bäck, it is a “misunderstanding between officials”. Bäck says that Ulf Kristersson has provided correct information and that checks will be introduced in the future to ensure that the adjustment of his fee is correct.
The prime minister did not want to be interviewed about the trips, but his press secretary writes that the prime minister followed the existing procedures. Just over four months after the trip to Washington DC and after SVT started asking questions about the trips, a deduction of around SEK 16,000 was made for flights and hotels in the USA and Finland.