Leaked emails have revealed that Swedish Gender Equality Minister Paulina Brandberg has a strong aversion to bananas, with government officials taking extensive measures to ensure that spaces she visits are banana-free.
According to a report by Swedish tabloid Expressen, emails show Brandberg’s staff coordinating with various organizations to remove bananas ahead of her official visits.
One email, sent to the Norwegian Judicial Agency prior to a VIP lunch, stated: “Paulina Brandberg has a strong allergy to bananas, so it would be appreciated that there are no bananas in the areas where she will be staying.” This request was met with a positive response.
“It’s sort of an allergy, you could say,” Brandberg confirmed in a statement to Expressen on Wednesday, adding, “It’s something that I get professional help with.”
Further emails sent by her team to other institutions, including a county administrative board and the Swedish Parliament Speaker Andreas Norlén, reiterated the request for no bananas to be present in areas Brandberg would occupy during meetings.
Brandberg has publicly acknowledged her phobia of bananas in the past, sharing posts on social media in 2020. In one post, she described it as “the world’s craziest phobia,” but later deleted those posts.
