Police officers with automatic weapons, 24-hour surveillance and cameras around the municipal hall. The life of Sigtuna’s top politician was turned upside down after a criminal network sent torpedoes after him. For SVT, he now talks for the first time about the time under threat.
It was in 2021 that Olov Holst, outgoing municipal board chairman in Sigtuna,
got a tip: a mission had gone out in the underworld to assassinate him.
It was later revealed in media reports that a criminal network had planned a bombing against a municipal politician and a police chief. In connection with a police crackdown, two car bombs were found which were said to have been intended for the targets.
Olov Holst is now telling us for the first time that he was the target of the torpedoes.
“It’s just to admit that it was quite shocking news. When you find car bombs, it becomes even more concrete: aha, that’s how they intended to do it. It’s not funny thoughts you get then”, says Olov Holst.
An iron ring
Around his villa in the small community by Lake Mälaren, the police formed an iron ring. 24-hour surveillance, with surveillance cameras and police officers with automatic weapons. But in the immediate time after the threat became known to the chairman of the municipal board, a private company managed his security. When the bill was to be paid, it became clear to Holst that there was a,
as he says, lax in taking responsibility.
It became unclear whether it was the municipality or his party, the Moderates, who would pay the bill.
“You can’t have that ambiguity in the situation I ended up in”, says Olov Holst.
Leaving politics
Holst will resign on 1 February next year, he says.
“If I am to leave, I must do so in sufficient time for a successor to create a platform for the next election”.
Is it these events that are to blame?
That is definitely not what makes me resign. But it is one of the stones that has been placed on the burden that is already quite heavy for everyone who is the chairman of the municipal board”, says Olov Holst.
