Murder overshadows euro vote

By Lars Bevanger
BBC, Stockholm

Anna Lindh was a key figure in the Yes campaign

Sweden's referendum on the euro is going ahead on Sunday despite the killing of Foreign Minister Anna Lindh.

But the politician's death is completely overshadowing the vote.

Voters are shocked, sad and angry, and the debate about currencies - whether to drop the krone for the euro - no longer seems so important.

Prime Minister Goran Persson said the referendum would go ahead, because the alternative would mean giving in to violence.

I hope the voter turnout will be higher, that people make it some kind of a demonstration Niklas Ekdal Newspaper political editor

However, the campaigns - for and against the euro - have been halted.

Mr Persson and Ms Lindh were the main figureheads for the Yes campaign, and until the killing on Wednesday all polls showed them heading for defeat.

A swing in favour of the euro, prompted by public sympathy for Ms Lindh, now seems possible, making the outcome of the referendum harder to predict.

But both No and Yes campaigners have said they will regard the result as no less valid than it would have been had the vote been held in normal circumstances.

'More determined'

"No-one will use the death of Anna Lindh as a tool to question the result," Niklas Ekdal, political editor of the national daily Dagens Nyheter told the BBC.

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"People have a feeling we should now rally around the democratic system. Suddenly the question Yes or No to the euro seems secondary.

"I hope the voter turnout will be higher, that people make it some kind of a demonstration."

Ms Lindh's successor as foreign minister, Jan Karlsson, echoed this thought.

"The murder has not changed the Swedish people's belief in democratic life," he told the BBC.

"I think everybody shares the government's decision to go ahead with this referendum.

She was the future of Swedish politics, many had tipped her as the next prime minister Per Wendel Politicial commentator

"The death of Anna Lindh will make people even more determined to go and vote."

Regardless of the outcome of the referendum, the position of Mr Persson's already popular government is likely to be strengthened still further by Ms Lindh's death.

This is because in times of crisis people tend to gather around well-known symbols and the powers that be.

Last act

However, Ms Lindh leaves behind her a big vacuum not only in the country, but in her party too.

"She was the future of Swedish politics, many had tipped her as the next prime minister," said Per Wendel, political commentator with the tabloid Expressen.

"But she had also maintained her historical links to the [traditions of the] Social Democratic Party, and had great weight in Swedish political life."

The knifeman who attacked Ms Lindh on Wednesday cut off her promising career in its prime, making the euro referendum campaign her last political act.

If the Yes vote does in the end prevail on Sunday, it may not catapult Sweden immediately into the single currency.

Mr Persson suggested during the campaign that the government might want to wait and watch how the euro fared, rather than joining as soon as logistically possible.

In the case of a No vote, both sides have said this would not mean a permanent rejection of the euro.