25 years ago to the day, the Swedes learned late in the evening, as their prime minister had been assassinated by bullets. Very few people saw Olof Palme lying on the sidewalk Sveavägen, one of Stockholm's main avenues, almost deserted at that hour (before that showcase a photo at the corner of the street) .
This violent death has nevertheless marked an in-depth country who believed himself immune against such an act, it was nestled in the cocoon of the welfare state he had patiently woven. The misfires of the investigation, they have undermined confidence that the Swedes gave their authorities. They have also given rise to theories or spooky about the murder ... (Show Rendezvous with X, on France-Inter, takes few tracks here).
Until today, therefore, the case remains shrouded in mystery.
A year ago, I recounted here ( That night, an unknown ) how young I was called on duty that night had lived from 28 February to 1 March 1986. Today, I'll reproduce the article I wrote for Time , daily Switzerland - like another country "neutral" - where we keep an eye
attentive to what is happening in Sweden. The article was published on this day of commemoration. I added some pictures drawn on canvas. Previously, I recommend this audiovisual portrait rather eloquent ( "Kennedy Jacobin European citizen ... well ... high in the eyes piercing gray-blue Scandinavian which we find the equivalent in the reflection of Swedish steel ... patrician red ... ") produced by the ORTF and kept in the archives of the INA. As log Antenne 2 released the day after the crime.
I also point out a site offering speech and articles (in English) this figure of European social democracy. On the home page site, I recommend a short silent film shot in 8 mm Palme himself, during a visit to Algeria in autumn 1962, when he did that an employee of Tage Erlander, his mentor and predecessor as head of government.
From this trip, Palme later wrote "There I learned how important it was to support liberation movements" . He subsequently appeared in demonstrating against the Vietnam war and expressing his support for the new post-colonial regimes. Behind the scenes Yet Palme was anxious to spare the American government by maintaining a secret collaboration against the Soviet Union, according to books by historians and journalists (here the latest ) and who tarnish the image of a Palm cross of anti-American imperialism. Ah, Realpolitik, when you hold us ...
ARTICLE published in Le Temps :
Twenty-five years after his death, the riddle Olof Palme
February 28, 2011 This time, c 'was too much for Mårten Palme. The youngest son of the former Swedish prime minister could not let them say, without any proof that his father had been murdered by soldiers or policemen. That the person spreading through the media to advance this thesis, Leif G. W. Persson, a criminology professor and author of best-selling thrillers [ including one inspired by the murder ] , does not allow him to move anything, according to Palm junior. "His theory is unfounded! He falls into the same trap as others before him, looking for evidence that reinforces his own view of who could commit murder. "
This small settlement of accounts has caused a stir last week in Sweden, while kingdom commemorates the death of Olof Palme, February 28, 1986. It says a lot about the impotence of the kingdom to lighten the biggest case of his criminal history. For, despite considerable work, despite the assistance provided by foreign police forces, assassination of the figure of European social democracy has still not been elucidated.
A year ago, the Stockholm parliament amended the law that previously fixed at 25 years the statute of limitations for murder. In theory, the Swedish police can continue indefinitely to investigate until it flushes out the culprit. But it does succeed one day? 95% of Swedes do not believe, according to a recent survey published by the newspaper Svenska Dagbladet .
For many of them, the murderer has been identified ... and he died. Christer Pettersson, a marginal arrested in 1988, was recognized by Lisbeth Palme, the Prime Minister's wife, with whom she was walking to a movie, without a bodyguard when was shot in the street. Pettersson, who would have avenged a friend in prison, was sentenced to
imprisonment. Later pardoned on appeal for lack of evidence. In addition, Lisbeth Palme was influenced by the publication of a photograph of the suspect before being confronted him. The Supreme Court has definitively closed the case in 1998. Pettersson, unrepentant consumers of amphetamines, died six years later, not without having boasted of having committed the crime ... He is not alone. No fewer than 130 people confessed killing the officer, especially in the early years following the tragedy. Of mythomaniacs, concluded the police. It has not failed to work over the years: some 11 000 people were accused namely to have pulled the trigger.
On several occasions, the Swedes believed that the police, after an initial investigation for less winded, was finally on track. The assumptions made them travel in various places on the planet where we could sponsor the assassination. Palme had undertaken to mediate peace between Iran and Iraq were at war. He was trying to promote a "third voice" between East and West, on behalf of Sweden neutral considered too close to Moscow by some. It honnissait the apartheid South African, who paid her well.
Thus clashed several "tracks": the CIA - associated with right-wing Swedish police - the South African Police Service, the PKK (Kurdish pro-independence party in Turkey) dissatisfied with the monitoring its members in Sweden, etc.. As recently as January, the track was resurfaced in Yugoslavia who favor a magazine survey German Focus . Inconsequential so far.
"What the Swedish state apparatus could not handle such a case has shaken the Swedes and reduces their confidence in him" , advanced Kjell Östberg [ radio link, Swedish] a historian, author of a biography Palm. Consequently, the population has paid close attention to "revelations" made by private detectives more or less seriously. One of them said
murder by smuggling diamonds another has accused members of the Palm family, etc.. The reward of 7.2 million Swiss francs, and promised to any conclusive evidence, still stands. For police, the element that could revive the investigation was the discovery of the murder weapon, a Smith & Wesson .357 Magnum, according to ballistic tests. In 2006, such revolvers, long-sought, was found. Alas, it was too rusty to "talk". The four investigators' group Palme abandoning their mission without much conviction. "We must be realistic" , Stig Edqvist coward, its leader since 14.
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