Analysis: "Alternative theories will continue to flourish"

The presentation of the investigation into the Palm murder is a major and important news event. However, the conclusions the investigation lands in are unclear. Speculation has already been launched about the so-called Skandia man, or about what has been described as the South Africa Track.

Should the Prosecutor choose to close the investigation, it will be received as a major anti-climax following the extensive media attention of winter and spring.

Otherwise, it is precisely the anticlimax that has characterized the Palme investigation since the first day. I myself have been active as a journalist throughout the years the investigation has been going on and for several years I have been monitoring the investigation and the political developments in its wake.

Who doesn't remember the first arrest of the 33-year-old, who was identified as Palme's killer? However, he was soon released and dismissed as a suspect. Or Christer Pettersson, who was arrested and sentenced, but subsequently released by the High Court because the confrontation with Lisbeth Palme was carried out incorrectly?

Or the so-called PKK track, which was about Kurdish terrorists killing Olof Palme? Or the South African track, which assumed that the South African apartheid regime wanted to silence Palme and sent his security service to kill him?

All these tracks became nothing more than just tracks. At least not so far. In the same way, the Scandinavian has, through the decades, moved in and out of the investigation without the prosecutors having succeeded in bringing the matter to trial in court.

The Palm investigation was also long characterized by a lack of professionalism, but the higher the degree of politicization. During the first years, the political involvement in the investigation was particularly clear. Social democracy's grip on the state administration was clear, which also affected the Palme investigation.

So much so that the entire investigation in the summer of 1988 exploded in a major political scandal.

It turned out that the then Minister of Justice Anna-Greta Leijon wrote a letter of recommendation to the private team and party mate Ebbe Carlsson, who conducted his own investigations abroad in the hunt for Olof Palme's murderer. For his help, he had, among other things, personnel from the Security Police.

When the news broke, the scandal was a fact. At the same time, Ebbe Carlsson's aides got into the customs with illegal eavesdropping equipment in the car.

Leijon was forced to resign in order to avoid a threatening declaration of confidence. The national police chief and Säpo's chief were also allowed to resign.

After the scandals, the investigation has never really been called again. For a long time, it has been running on a low flame, while journalists and debaters regularly put forward new or new theories.

Perhaps the investigation presented on Wednesday may shed new light on what actually happened on Sveavägen late in the evening on February 28, 1986. And maybe new information about who or who was behind the murder.

If the Prosecutor can present new evidence, it would be sensational. But the question is whether it would be enough to silence alternative theories about the murder. They are likely to continue to flourish in the social debate. The only thing that could put a stop to it was a convict. But no one can expect that, given the length of time that has elapsed.

The Palm Assassination is supposed to continue to engage, fascinate and puzzle.

Maybe it's not that strange either. After all, the murder of Olof Palme is the most notable murder in Sweden since Gustav III was shot on March 16, 1792 at the Opera in Stockholm. But in principle, the culprit was arrested immediately after the murder.