Sami Puoltsa sign disappeared: "Someone has turned it down"

Girjasdom continues to awaken strong emotions. The vandalization of the Swedish Transport Administration's sign with the Sami locality of Puoltsa, Buolža, is probably the latest in a long line of threats and hatred against the Sami village's representatives.

It was Sara Hansson who discovered it this morning and she saw clear snowmobile tracks next to the halved sign for the Kiruna village.

- I called Matti Blind-Berg directly. This is not so fun, she says.

Matti Blind-Berg tells SVT News Norrbotten that there may be someone who brought the sign with him as a souvenir - but he still believes in another explanation.

- It has happened in the past that someone has taken down signs with Sami place names and there have been suspicious motives behind. Now the sign is gone. Someone has unscrewed it and brought it with us and it is clear that we miss it. Sure, it's boring, he says.

Jan Eliasson is project manager for road and maintenance at the Swedish Transport Administration and has not heard anything that the current sign should have been removed by them.

- Sometimes it is true that you have different political views and then you give up on a sign, he says.