A Swedish minister is seeking treatment for her phobia of bananas after it emerged government staff had to sweep rooms before official visits on health grounds.

Paulina Brandberg, the Swedish minister for gender equality, said that she was getting professional help after emails detailing her staff’s “banana-proofing” precautions were leaked to a tabloid newspaper.

She admitted suffering from the “world’s weirdest phobia of bananas” on X in 2020, but the post has now been deleted.

Emails reportedly sent before official visits asked for “no bananas” to be allowed claiming that Ms Brandberg had a “strong allergy”.

In another email, her staff told Andreas Norlén, the speaker of the Swedish Parliament, there should be “no traces of bananas” in any place where Ms Brandberg would be.

The Liberal party minister told the Expressen newspaper that she had a banana phobia and described its impact as “sort of an allergy”.

It is “something I’m getting professional help for”, she added.

‘She is being ridiculed’

A banana phobia can be triggered by seeing or smelling the fruit, and can cause anxiety and nausea. Some experts suggest that it can develop during childhood.

Ms Brandberg’s fellow politicians defended her after the demands for banana-free zones made national headlines.

Ulf Kristersson, the Swedish prime minister, said he has “great respect” for all people with phobias.

“It bothers me that a hard-working minister is now almost reduced to a phobia. That she is being ridiculed. I think people should rise above that,” he told the TT news agency.

Teresa Carvalho, a MP from the opposition Swedish Social Democratic Party and its spokesman for legal policy, said she also suffered from bananaphobia.

“We may have had many tough debates about conditions in working life, but on this issue we stand united against a common enemy,” she told Ms Brandberg on X.