It all looked so pleasant for The Moderates in Sweden a few weeks ago – Reinfeldt had led the party to a historically high share of the vote, and he would be Prime Minister. Yet just over a week after the announcement of the new cabinet, 2 Ministers – Maria Borelius and Cecilia Stegö Chilò – have already had to resign, both for similar reasons: the non-payment of TV Licenses and tax irregularities relating to domestic staff (nannies).

In Chilò’s case, she had not paid her TV Licence for 16 years, yet had the outright cheek to say this in her resignation statement:

what will happen with our democracy if it only has room for faultless people?

Full statement in English here. How the hell dare she even say such a thing? Government cannot function if the population does not obey the laws of the country, and her behaviour surely prevents her being a minister. News of the story here from the BBC, and here from The Local.

So there are now 3 questions to answer: will Reinfeldt manage to find 2 suitable replacements for the Ministers that resigned from amongst the ranks of the Moderates, or will he have to look to his coalition partners? And will he manage to find women? Then the question is: how long until the next round of resignations, and will the Alliance hold out for 4 years? Not a very positive start.