Stefan Löfven

Stefan Löfven
33rd Prime Minister of Sweden
Incumbent
Assumed office 3 October 2014
Monarch	Carl XVI Gustaf
Deputy	Margot Wallström Åsa Romson Isabella Lövin
Preceded by	Fredrik Reinfeldt
Leader of the Social Democratic Party
Incumbent
Assumed office 27 January 2012
General Secretary	Carin Jämtin Lena Rådström Baastad
Preceded by	Håkan Juholt
Leader of the Opposition
In office 27 January 2012 – 3 October 2014
Monarch	Carl XVI Gustaf
Deputy	Carina Moberg Mikael Damberg
Preceded by	Håkan Juholt
Succeeded by	Fredrik Reinfeldt
Member of the Riksdag
In office 29 September 2014 – 3 October 2014
Constituency	Stockholm County
Personal details
Born	Kjell Stefan Löfvén (1957-07-21) 21 July 1957 (age 61) Stockholm, Sweden
Political party	Social Democrats
Spouse(s)	Ulla Löfvén (2003–present)
Residence	Sager House
Signature
Military service
Allegiance	Sweden
Service/branch	Swedish Air Force
Years of service	1976–1977

Kjell Stefan Löfven (Swedish pronunciation: [ˈsteːfan lœˈveːn]; born 21 July 1957) is a Swedish politician serving as Prime Minister of Sweden since 2014 and Leader of the Social Democratic Party since 2012.^[1] He served as Leader of the Opposition from 2012 to 2014. Löfven lost a vote of no-confidence on September 25, 2018, and is currently the acting Prime Minister while a new government (which may be led by Löfven himself) is being formed.

After serving in the Swedish Air Force, Löfven qualified as a welder and also began a career as an active trade unionist, becoming an ombudsman with the Swedish Metalworkers' Union, and eventually being elected as the first Chair of IF Metall in January 2006. After the resignation of Håkan Juholt following an expenses scandal in January 2012, Löfven was unanimously selected by the executive board of the Swedish Social Democratic Party to become their new leader.^[2][3]

Following the 2014 general election, he was appointed Sweden's 33rd Prime Minister, leading a minority coalition government with the Green Party.

Early life and education[edit]

Löfven was born 21 July 1957 in Aspudden, Stockholm. He was placed in an orphanage 10 months after his birth. Löfven was subsequently looked after by a foster family from Sunnersta, Sollefteå, where he grew up. According to the agreement with this family, his birth mother would regain custody of him when she was able to; however, this did not happen.^[4]

His foster father Ture Melander (1926–2003) was a lumberjack and then a factory worker, while his foster mother, Iris Melander (née Söderlund, born 1929), worked as a health visitor.^[5] He studied at Sollefteå High School before going on a welding course for 48 weeks at AMU in Kramfors. Löfven studied social work at Umeå University, but dropped out after a year and a half.^[4]

Trade unionist[edit]

After completing his compulsory military service in the Swedish Air Force at the F 4 Frösön airbase 1976–77, Löfven began his career in 1978 as a welder at Hägglunds in Örnsköldsvik. Two years later he was chosen as the group's union representative, and went on to hold a succession of union posts. In 1995 he started as an employed ombudsman in the Swedish Metalworkers' Union, working in the areas of contract negotiations and international affairs. In 2001 he was elected vice-chairman of the Metalworkers' Union, and in November 2005 was elected as the first chairman of the newly formed trade union IF Metall.^[2]

Political career[edit]

Stefan Löfven elected to become the party's new leader on 27 January 2012.

Löfven has been a member of the Social Democrats since the age of 13 and was active in SSU, the youth league, in his teens. Löfven was elected to the executive board of the Social Democrats in 2006, shortly after becoming chairman of trade union IF Metall.

Leader of the Social Democrats[edit]

In January 2012, following the resignation of Håkan Juholt, it was reported that Löfven was being considered as his successor. On 26 January 2012 the executive board nominated Löfven to become the party's new leader^[6][7][8] On 27 January 2012, Löfven was elected Leader in a party-room ballot.^[9][10] Löfven was confirmed as party leader at the party's bi-annual congress on 4 April 2013.^[11]

Löfven led his party through the 2014 European Parliament election where the Social Democrats retained their position as the largest party from Sweden in the European Parliament. However, the election results at 24.19% was a slightly inferior than the result in 2009 European Parliament election, the party's seats in the European Parliament was reduced from six to five^[12] and the party's results was the lowest in an election at the national level since universal suffrage was introduced in 1921.

Prime Minister[edit]

Main article: Premiership of Stefan Löfven

Stefan Löfven and his Cabinet on 3 October 2014.

Löfven led his party through the September 2014 general election, which resulted in a hung parliament.^[13] The election result of 31.0%, up from 30.7%, was slightly better than the result in the 2010 general election but the result was also the party's second worst result in a general election to the Riksdag since universal suffrage was introduced in 1921.

He announced that he would form a minority coalition government consisting his own party and the Green Party. On 2 October 2014, the Riksdag approved Löfven to become Prime Minister,^[14] and he took office on 3 October 2014 alongside his Cabinet. The Social Democrats and the Green Party voted in favour of Löfven becoming Prime Minister, while close ally the Left Party abstained. The opposition Alliance-parties also abstained while the far-right Sweden Democrats voted against.

Löfven has also expressed a desire for bipartisan agreement between the Government and the opposition Alliance parties and together they have marked three areas where enhanced cooperation will be initiated. The three areas are the pension system, future energy development, and security and defence policy.

Domestic policy[edit]

The Stockholm Pride parade, 2 August 2014

2014 Government crisis[edit]

The Government is a minority coalition government and the Government's budget was introduced to the Riksdag on 23 October 2014. The Left Party, which had been given influence over the budget, supported the budget. The non-socialist coalition, the Alliance, introduced a competing budget to the Riksdag on 10 November 2014, as promised prior to the 2014 general election, and the Sweden Democrats also introduced their own budget on 10 November 2014.

According to Riksdag practice the parties support their own budget and if the budget falls they abstains from voting. However, on 2 December 2014, the far-right Sweden Democrats announced that, after their own budget fell in the first voting round, they would support the Alliance parties' budget in the second voting round, thus giving that budget a majority in the Riksdag.

On 3 December 2014, the Government's budget was voted down by the Alliance parties and the Sweden Democrats and as a consequence, Löfven announced that he would call for a fresh election to be held on 22 March 2015.^[15]

On 22 December 2014, sources within the Riksdag leaked information that the Government was negotiating with the Alliance parties (Moderate Party, Centre Party, Liberal People's Party and the Christian Democrats) to find a solution and to avoid a fresh election.^[16] On 27 December 2014, the Government and the Alliance parties held a joint press conference where they announced that the six major parties had reached an agreement designed to ensure that minority governments would be able to get their own budget through the Riksdag. The agreement, dubbed "Decemberöverenskommelsen" (December Agreement), was called historical by Löfven and will be in force until the 2022 general election, regardless of the results of the next general election due to be held in 2018.^{[17][not in citation given]} Subsequently, Löfven announced that he no longer intended to call a snap election.^[18] The centre-right Alliance withdrew from the agreements in 2015, but allowed the minority government to continue governing.

2015 European migrant crisis[edit]

In 2015, when a rising number of refugees and migrants^[19] began to make the journey to the European Union to seek asylum, Europe was hit by a migrant crisis and Sweden received over 150,000 refugees in 2015.

During the autumn of 2015, the reception of refugees increased significantly to over 80,000 in two months and with terror group Islamic state rampage in the Middle East and the following attacks in Paris in November 2015, the Löfven cabinet signifigantly reverted Sweden's migration policy. On 23 October 2015, a bipartisan migration agreement was signed between the cabinet parties and the oppositional Moderate Party, the Centre Party, the Liberals and the Christian Democrats which included, among many other changes, temporary residency permits, total financial support requirements for family reunification and by law forcing municipalities to help with sheltering refugees in order to better distribute the burden across the country. ^[20]

On 12 November 2015, the cabinet introduced temporary border controls with immediate effect. The cabinet also proposed identity checks for every individual passing the Danish–Swedish border and closing of the Öresund Bridge, giving up the latter on 8 December 2015 after severe criticism.^[21] On 17 December 2015, the Riksdag passed legislation to introduce identity checks with the votes 175 in favor, 39 against and 135 abstained.^[22] On 4 January 2016, the identity checks was introduced,^[23] which means that people who can not show a valid identity card, license or passport are not allowed to cross the border into Sweden, breaking with the Nordic Passport Union for the first time since 1954. Only twelve hours later the Danish Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen announced that Denmark will implement temporary border controls along the German–Danish border with immediate effect as a consequence of Sweden's identity checks.^[24]

2017 national security crisis[edit]

In July 2017, it became known to the public that Maria Ågren, a former Director-General of the Swedish Transport Agency, had been investigated after having cleared confidential information threatening the security of the country. The act was made in connection with a procurement of IT services with a non-governmental company in 2015. Among the cleared data were wanted vehicles, armored vehicles, the entire Swedish vehicles register, Swedish company secrets, the Swedish police criminal record- and suspicion registers, the Swedish state's internal security system and information about agents within the Swedish Military Intelligence and Security Service.^[25]

Several days after it first became public, Löfven held a press conference on 24 July 2017 where he said that "there's been an accident at the Transport Agency".^[26] Responsible cabinet minister Anna Johansson said she had been aware of the situation since January 2017 and blamed her former state secretary Erik Bromander for not having informed her earlier.^[27] Cabinet ministers Anders Ygeman and Peter Hultqvist were reported to have been aware of the situation since the beginning of 2016, but chose not to inform the head of government.^[28]

All parties within the Swedish opposition have opened up for a vote of confidence against cabinet ministers Anna Johansson, Anders Ygeman and Peter Hultqvist in order to remove them from office, with some parties calling for vote of confidence against Löfven as Prime Minister. Such a vote would, if supported by several parties, result in a removal of the Löfven cabinet.^[29] In a press conference on 27 July Löfven announced a government reshuffling with Ygeman and Johansson resigning. He also stated that he would not resign himself over the incident.

Foreign policy[edit]

Foreign trips made by Stefan Löfven as Prime Minister (as of 3 January 2015)

In his Policy Statement, introduced to the Riksdag on 3 October 2014, Löfven said that his Government would recognize the State of Palestine. On 30 October 2014 the Government, through Minister for Foreign Affairs Margot Wallström, announced that the Government had decided to officially recognize the State of Palestine and explained the recognition by saying that it is the only solution to get to a two-state solution between Israel and the State of Palestine. Sweden is the first country within the European Union to do so after gaining membership (with other members, such as Poland, withholding recognition previously issued under Communist rule).^[30] Israel called the move unconsidered and Israel recalled its ambassador, Isaac Bachman, following the recognition. Bachman returned to Sweden on 29 November 2014.^[31] In December 2015 Löfven caused an outrage in Israel by claiming that stabbing attacks are not considered terrorism by international standards. Later he reiterated himself, explaining that it is now known that the stabbing attacks are sanctioned by some terror organisations.^[32]

Löfven with Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, 11 February 2017

Löfven has said that the ongoing negotiations of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) between the European Union and the United States are very important and that it is in Sweden's interest that the managed trade agreement is implemented. However, he has said that the managed trade agreement shall not aggravate social conditions or human rights, which should be a high priority while negotiating.^[33]

Löfven visited Iran in February 2017 and held talks with Ali Khamenei to improve economic relations.^[34]

2018 general election[edit]

Stefan Löfven vowed to make the Swedish general election, 2018 a referendum about the welfare state.^[35] The Social Democratic Party went on to a better result than polls indicated with 28.26 percent of the popular vote and with the red-green bloc having a slight advantage in a hung parliament of 144 seats to 143 for the centre-right coalition Alliansen. Löfven announced on Election Night that he will continue as Prime Minister and called for the "burial of bloc politics" in Sweden.^[36]

However, on 25 September 2018 the Riksdag approved a motion of no confidence against Löfven Cabinet with a 204-142 vote, resulting in a caretaker government with Löfven as acting Prime Minister.^[37]

Personal life[edit]

Löfven enjoys sports and supports the ice hockey club Modo from Örnsköldsvik^[38] and the football clubs Tottenham Hotspur^[39] and GIF Sundsvall.^[40]

References[edit]

External links[edit]

• Media related to Stefan Löfven at Wikimedia Commons