Foreign minister's murder will not stop Euro vote

Swedish Foreign Minister Anna Lindh, died today, hours after she had been savagely attacked by a knifeman while shopping in Stockholm.

The 46-year-old politician and mother-of-two was the second Swedish politician to be murdered in 17 years.

Lindh died at 4.29am Irish time from severe internal bleeding and injuries to her stomach and liver after she was stabbed multiple times in an exclusive department store.

Police did not believe the attack was politically motivated, despite the fact it came just three days before Swedes were to vote in a referendum on adopting the euro.

Lindh was an ardent supporter of the common currency and one of the yes side’s most visible campaigners.

The no camp is favoured to win Sunday’s vote and political parties said today the referendum will go ahead as planned.

Lindh’s death cast a pallor across the Scandinavian country of nine million, whose residents have always enjoyed wide access to their leaders.

Lindh, like assassinated Prime Minister Olof Palme, had no bodyguards. Only the current prime minister, Goeran Persson, and King Carl Gustaf, have permanent security details.

Choking on his words as he announced Lindh’s death, Persson said the country’s tradition of openness was forever damaged by the killing.

“The attack against her also hurt the society we’ve built up and in which we want to live in,” he said.

In the Riksdag, or parliament, MPs held a moment of silence, while Swedish flags flew at half-staff across the country.

Churches were to be kept open in many parts of the country and a memorial service was being held in Uppsala Cathedral tonight.

Agneta Blidberg, the lead police investigator, said every resource was being used to track down the camouflage jacket clad knifeman, who was last seen fleeing the store.

Borders with Norway, Finland and Denmark were being monitored closely and ferry traffic between Sweden and the Baltic states were also being watched.

“We are using all the means at our disposal,” she said.

On the streets of the capital, many people were moving about slowly, casting glances from side to side and placing flowers near the Nordiska Kompaniet store where Lindh was attacked.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said he “was shocked and deeply saddened” by the news of Lindh’s death.

“Sweden has lost a successful and a great Foreign Minister, a great Swede and a great European. I have also lost a close friend and so has the United Nations,” said Annan, whose wife, Nane, is Swedish.

In neighbouring Finland, the government met in an emergency session following the news of Lindh’s death and conveyed its condolences to her family and the Swedish nation.

“We have lost a close friend and a good colleague,” Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen said in Helsinki. “Anna Lindh was known in Finland as a warm, dedicated and cheerful person.

Vanhanen described the attack as “a major setback and shock” to the open societies which the Nordic countries have nurtured.

MPs in Germany’s lower house of parliament fell silent as Parliament President Wolfgang Thierse interrupted a budget debate with news of Lindh’s death.

“I can only express our revulsion at this deed,” Thierse said. “Our solidarity is with the people, the parliament and the government of Sweden.”

Norwegian Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik said he received the news with “shock and disbelief.”

French President Jacques Chirac telephoned Persson to convey his “great sadness and consternation.”

“It is deeply tragic that we now have lost Anna Lindh in this meaningless way,” Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen said in a statement.

Lindh was head of the Foreign Ministry since 1998, serving as environmental minister before that.

She was a member of the Riksdag, or parliament, from 1982-1985. She is married and has two children.

Scandinavia is relatively immune to political violence, unlike other parts of Europe.

Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic was assassinated in March by allies of Slobodan Milosevic seeking to topple his pro-Western government as he was heading to a meeting with Lindh.

In the Netherlands, anti-immigration politician Pim Fortuyn was shot to death by an animal rights activist in May 2002.