The Center Party's second vice-president and EU parliamentarian Fredrick Federley has until recently had a relationship with a man who has previously been convicted of several serious crimes.
Federley himself announced this in a Facebook post last week, where he also said that he was leaving politics indefinitely due to mental illness.
The man was sentenced in 2014 to a long prison sentence for, among other things, several aggravated rapes against children.
"The crimes he has committed are downright terrible, indescribable and completely unforgivable.
We have now gone our separate ways ", Federley wrote in the Facebook post.
"Sad and tragic"
Now the Center leader Annie Lööf comments on the party comrade's ended relationship with the convicted man.
- It is very sad and tragic, not least for Fredrick Federley personally.
He is now seriously ill and will be on sick leave for some time to come.
We have talked to him and we take this information very seriously, says Annie Lööf.
- We will talk more with him when there are such opportunities.
The center leader says that she became aware of the crimes on November 23, three days before Federley's post on Facebook.
But according to Annie Lööf, Federley must have known about the man's background "for a long time".
- That's how he has expressed himself to us, she says.
"Staying between us"
The information that has emerged has damaged confidence in Fredrick Federley, Annie Lööf believes.
But at present she does not want to comment on whether it is possible for Federley to continue to be active within the Center Party.
- The confidence in Fredrick Federley is damaged in that he has known about this information about the serious crime that the relative has committed.
But exactly how and what conversations we have had stay between us.