Sweden's Trade Minister Maria Borelius has resigned after only a week in office over media reports accusing her of dodging paying taxes, Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt said on Saturday.
The Reinfeldt cabinet's first week in office has been one of mounting embarrassment as several of its members have admitted not paying taxes and other mandatory fees - a not uncommon practice among Swedes facing one of the highest tax burden in the world, but deplored when practised by their politicians.
"I talked with Maria (Borelius) this morning and she herself felt that she did not have the strength to go on and we agreed that she would resign," Reinfeldt said in a radio interview.
Shortly after Borelius was appointed minister in Sweden's new centre-right cabinet, Swedish media said she had employed a nanny without paying taxes or social contribution fees.
In the following days, the media said Borelius, member of the biggest party of the coalition government, Reinfeldt's own Moderate Party, had bought a summer home in southern Sweden through a firm based in tax haven Jersey, thus avoiding paying full taxes on the real estate. The government, which ran on an election platform of more jobs and lower taxes and unemployment benefits, is due to present its first budget bill on Monday.
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