April 15 in [recent] Swedish History
1996: Mona Sahlin resigns from the Swedish government following the so-called “Tobleroneaffären,” in spite of the fact that the preliminary investigation against her is discontinued. The criticism against her during this affair, when it is discovered that she’s made private payments using a credit card issued by the state (among the items she’s bought are two Toblerone bars, therefore the name), becomes too harsh and she decides to take a “time out.”

Within a few years, Sahlin is back in politics, however. About this period in her life she once said in an interview with daily DN: “Many within the party (the Social Democrats), people I counted as my friends, slandered my name, lied about me, and stood me up when I needed their support the most. I could’ve hated them then, those who put up obstacles in my way to get the best assignment a Social Democrat could get (that of Prime Minister—at the time of the Toblerone Affair, Sahlin was the Deputy Prime Minister). But I chose the higher road. Every time I met a person who had hurt me, I smiled—the less I liked the person in question, the bigger my smile. I didn’t want anyone see me tiptoeing near the walls as a bitter, hateful woman. Instead I wanted to go out of this difficult time stronger.”