After a lightning resignation
Really now: Magdalena Andersson is Sweden’s first head of government
Magdalena Andersson (center), Prime Minister of Sweden, speaks at a press conference, next to her new cabinet members in the background
© Soeren Andersson / TT NEWS AGENCY / AP / DPA
Election, resignation, then another election and now officially: Sweden, as a pioneering country in matters of equality, is getting a head of government for the first time in Magdalena Andersson. Nevertheless, the problems of the Scandinavian country are not getting any less.
100 years after the introduction of women’s suffrage in Sweden, Magdalena Andersson was the first woman to take over government in the Scandinavian country. “I can say that the change of government has now taken place,” said Sweden’s King Carl XVI. Gustaf, when the new government presented to him at the Royal Palace in Stockholm on Tuesday afternoon. Andersson greeted Andersson for the first time with the words “Fru statsministerin” – Mrs. Prime Minister. The previous finance minister is thus officially the 34th person to hold the post of prime minister – and the very first woman in this office.
On Monday, the Reichstag in Stockholm elected Andersson Prime Minister for the second time within a few days. Around seven hours after her first election last Wednesday, she resigned after the Greens announced after a budget vote that they would leave the government with the Social Democrats. That is why the second vote was necessary.
Magdalena Andersson wants to fight gang crime
Sweden has been ruled by a red-green minority government since 2014. Andersson had been finance minister for seven years under Prime Minister Stefan Löfven. She is now with a purely social democratic minority government until the next parliamentary election in September 2022. As the 54-year-old announced in parliament, the previous Interior Minister Mikael Damberg will take over her position at the head of the Ministry of Finance. Ann Linde remains Foreign Minister, Lena Hallengren, who is very present in the corona crisis, continues to be Minister of Social Affairs and Health.
Compared to the Löfven government, however, there are several changes in the cabinet, including five in the previous positions of Green ministers. Jeanette Gustafsdotter will be the new Minister of Culture after Amanda Lind. The new School Minister Lina Axelsson Kihlblom is the first transperson in a Swedish government.
Andersson announced in a government statement that she would place three main topics at the center of her work: the fight against rampant organized crime in Sweden, progress with the green transition and emissions reduction, and awareness of the welfare state. Gang crime in particular must be pushed back. “The brutal violence is a poison that threatens our entire community,” said the social democrat.
Investigations against ministers
She also addressed the corona crisis, in which Sweden is currently doing comparatively well. In view of the negative developments in many countries in Europe and around the world, the government is preparing for a worsening situation.
As if that weren’t enough problems, a message from the public prosecutor struck a few minutes after the government statement: Preliminary investigations into sexual harassment have been initiated against the old and new Infrastructure Minister Tomas Eneroth. It is good that the matter is being investigated, said Andersson. Eneroth apologized to the woman concerned and made it clear that there was no intention. There is no reason for them not to believe that.