Around midnight on Saturday evening, the night of the Stockholm bombings, Sweden’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Carl Bildt wrote the following on his Twitter page: “Most worrying attempt at terrorist attack in crowded part of central Stockholm. Failed – but could have been truly catastrophic.”
Dagens Nyheter reports that this tweet was published almost 10 hours before police officially confirmed that the explosions on Bryggaregatan and Olof Palmes gata where indeed acts of terrorism. Social democrat and opposition member Hakan Juholt has criticised Bildt and the government for being unclear in its communication with the public.
Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt had to stress at a press conference on Sunday, that he was the official outlet for all government statements regarding the bombings. Something that Reinfeldt had to repeat following questions from Olandsbladet today, according to Expressen.
When asked about the tweet, Carl Bildt told Dagens Nyheter that apparently he had access to (unofficial) information at the time regarding the nature of the explosion. Bildt commented on the critisicm from Juholt by describing it as “the pseudo-debate of the week, with a capital P.”