Country seen as champion of equal rights faces reckoning after senior politician says she felt compelled to quit

Increasing hate, threats and harassment against female politicians are scaring women away from public life and forcing them to censor themselves, the Swedish government’s equality agency has said, warning that this poses a “big threat to democracy.”

Women’s safety in politics has come under heightened scrutiny in the Scandinavian country since October, when Anna-Karin Hatt resigned as leader of the Centre party after only five months in office, citing hate and threats.

“To constantly feel like you need to look over your shoulder and [to] not feel completely safe, not even at home … I am affected by it much more deeply than I thought I would [be],” she said at the time.