Her colleagues talk about allergies, but it seems that the Swedish Minister for Gender Equality mainly experiences an uncontrollable phobia. And the object of her fear is not common: Paulina Brandberg cannot stand being in the presence of bananas.
The forty-year-old would have already mentioned this problem a few years ago, calling it the strangest phobia in the world, in a post on X which has since disappeared from the platform, reports “Expressen”. But this week, the Swedish daily returned to the subject by publishing the content of certain emails sent by the minister’s entourage in order to keep her away from any bananas when she is traveling.
Except that when being informed of a severe allergy, recipients sometimes have difficulty understanding the requests. One of them specifies that they want to ensure that the pastry that will be served with the coffee will not contain any trace of banana. And he asks if removing the fruit baskets containing bananas the very morning of the minister’s arrival will be enough, as if he fears that the room will be contaminated by this fruit.
The wording of another response also makes you smile: “We are going to secure the conference so that there are no bananas,” promises its author.
Questioned by “Expressen”, Paulina Brandberg refused to comment on all the measures taken to protect her from bananas, although it seems that she suffers more from a phobia than from an allergy, which she confirmed to the daily . “It’s like some kind of allergy,” she replied, adding that she has “professional help” to deal with it.
Annoyed by what quickly became an almost national controversy, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson defended his colleague, regretting that a hard-working person was almost reduced to a phobia that people laughed at, reports “The Parisian”.
Another Swedish politician, Teresa Carvalho, came to the minister’s aid, claiming on X to suffer from the same phobia. To the point that she admits that it was difficult for her to read and share the article in question. She evokes a common enemy, even though she and Paulina Brandberg sometimes had lively political debates.
“Libération”, which also relates the bananophobia of the Swedish minister, affirms for its part that the French singer Louane suffers from the same illness.
