Stefan Löfven
Kjell Stefan Löfven born on 21 July 1957 in Hägerstens parish in Stockholm is a Swedish Social Democratic politician and Swedish Prime Minister. He was party leader for the Social Democrats in the period January 27, 2012 - November 4, 2021, before that union chairman. Between January 1, 2006 and January 27, 2012, he wasunion chairman of the trade union IF Metall . On January 27, 2012, he was elected Social Democrat party leader.
Stefan Löfven was appointed Prime Minister on 2 October 2014 and took office as Sweden's Prime Minister on 3 October 2014. He succeeded Fredrik Reinfeldt at a government council on 3 October 2014 and presented the Löfven I government, a minority government consisting of the Social Democrats and the Green Party . After the 2018 parliamentary elections , he was dismissed as Prime Minister after a prime ministerial vote showed that he did not have sufficient support in the Riksdag. After he was fired as Prime Minister on 25 September 2018, Löfven led a transitional government. On 18 January 2019, however, he was elected Prime Minister for a second term and presented the Löfven II Government on 21 January .
On 21 June 2021, Löfven and his government were overthrown in a no-confidence vote in the Riksdag. Löfven is the first prime minister in Sweden's history to be overthrown by a no - confidence vote. On July 9, 2021, the government formally took over Löfven III at a government council after the Swedish Parliament voted two days before to tolerate Löfven as Sweden's prime minister.
During his summer speech on Runö , Åkersberga , on 22 August 2021 , Löfven announced that he would resign as party chairman of the Social Democrats at the party congress in Gothenburg on 3–7 November 2021 and then ask to be dismissed as prime minister . The resignation as party leader took place on November 4, 2021, in connection with Magdalena Andersson being elected new party chairman. On November 10, Löfven requested from the Speaker of the Riksdagto be dismissed as Prime Minister and Member of Parliament. The Löfven III government thus became a transitional government, which will remain in place until the Riksdag appoints a new Prime Minister. According to the Speaker's plan, the Löfven III Government will be dismissed on 26 November 2021, when the Andersson Government formally takes office at a parcel council led by the King and in which the new Government and Speaker of the Riksdag participate.
Biography
Childhood
Stefan Löfven was born in Aspudden in Stockholm, but came ten months old as a foster child to Sunnersta in Ådalen in the current Sollefteå municipality , when his mother Margareta Löfven (1922–2000) could not keep both her children. Prior to that, he had been at Nybodahemmet 's orphanage. His father Karl Hedberg (1904–1959) died early without meeting his youngest son. Foster father Ture Melander (1926–2003). He was a forest worker and then factory worker and foster mother Iris Melander (1929–2020) worked in the home care service. The foster family also included a sister and a brother.
Growing up, he played ice hockey and worked as a municipal mower and timber sorter. Inspired by Olof Palme's international involvement, he was involved in starting a local SSU association, of which he later became chairman. He did his military service on Jämtland's air flotilla (F 4) in Östersund for 11 months in the years 1976–1977. Conscription consisted of basic training at F 4 in Östersund, then a radar observer training at the Swedish Air Force's Södertörn schools(F 18) in Tullinge south of Stockholm, to then get a job at a radar station just outside Sollefteå called R 46, on the way to Bollsta.
Family and name
At the age of 22, Löfven was reunited with his mother and older brother, Ulf Löfven, after having had correspondence before that. It was only when he himself learned that the family name of the rest of his family is pronounced with emphasis on the first syllable and not spelled with any accent. Probably in connection with the foster home placement, someone outside has assumed that the name would be spelled with an accent over the e and reported his name to the population register spelled that way. Löfven himself thus believed throughout his upbringing that his name was Löfvén just as it was spelled. When he got clarity on the issue, he stopped spelling the name himself with an accent, wanted to remove it from the population register as well, and considered starting to use the same pronunciation as the rest of the family. The only change, however, was that he himself stopped spelling the name with an accent, while it remained in the population register.
Löfven has been married to the church politician (S) Ulla Löfven since 2003. He has two stepchildren through her but no biological children of his own.
Training
Stefan Löfven completed a two-year financial line at the upper secondary school in Sollefteå . He started a welding course of 48 weeks at AMU in Kramfors . He then began studies at the University of Social Sciences in Umeå . He went there for a year and a half before dropping out of school.
Trade union career
Stefan Löfven worked both at the post office and at a sawmill before he was hired in 1979 as a welder at the defense industry company Hägglund & Söner in Örnsköldsvik , where he stayed until 1995. At Hägglunds he met his future wife, Ulla . He received his first union assignment in 1981 when he was elected contact representative at the workplace. Over the years, he has had a number of union assignments. In 1995, he started as a centrally employed ombudsman in the then Swedish metal industry workers' union(Metal) and has, among other things, worked with contract issues and international issues. From 1998 he was international secretary and in the years 1999–2002 head of the organizational unit. In 2001, Stefan Löfven was elected deputy chairman and at IF Metall's inaugural congress in November 2005, Stefan Löfven was elected chairman.
Other missions
Stefan Löfven has engaged in globalization issues : he held the titles International Secretary of the Swedish Metal Workers 'Union, director of Nordic Metal and deputy in the European Metalworkers' Federation ( a ) . He has also served on the board of Olof Palme's International Center and from 2004–2012 was vice chairman of the Swedish Trade Council. He was also a member of the University Board of the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) during the years 2010–2012.
As international secretary within IF Metall, Löfven had a leading role in the construction of the South African trade union Numsa's vocational school, which was sponsored by Saab in 1999, against contract terms that Numsa would be positive about the country's JAS purchase.
Political career
The Social Democrats' party leader
Löfven has been involved with the Social Democrats since the age of 13. He was elected to the party's executive committee in 2005. After Håkan Juholt left his post as party chairman of the Social Democrats, the executive committee proposed on 26 January 2012 that Löfven be elected new party chairman . The next day, January 27, Löfven was elected party chairman by a unanimous party board. The election of Löfven to the post was confirmed by the Social Democratic Party Congress on April 4, 2013.
Löfven stated early on that he wanted to develop the Social Democrats' business and innovation policy to create more companies. During his first May Day speech as party chairman, he launched the idea of an innovation policy council.
In Löfven's first election as party leader, the European Parliament elections in 2014 , the Social Democrats received 24.19 percent of the vote. The result was a marginal deterioration compared to the European elections in 2009 and meant that the Social Democrats lost a seat in the European Parliament. At the same time, it was also the lowest election result for the Social Democrats at national level since universal suffrage was introduced.
In 2013, Löfven participated in the Bilderberg group's meeting.
Term of office as Sweden's Prime Minister
Mandate period 2014–2018
The 2014 parliamentary election meant that the red-green bloc became larger than the Alliance , but without its own majority in the Riksdag. Löfven first tried to form a cross-bloc coalition government with the Center Party and the People's Party as possible partners, but the two parties declared that they did not want to be part of a government constellation with the Social Democrats because they wanted to preserve the existing Alliance cooperation . On 2 October 2014, Stefan Löfven was appointed by the Swedish Parliament to lead a minority government together with the Green Party as Prime Minister. Of the 349 members of the Riksdag, 132 voted for Löfven, 49 voted against and 154 abstained, which was a record-breaking parliamentary support for a prime ministerial candidate.
On October 3, 2014, Löfven presented his list of government ministers who would be part of the government.
When the government did not receive sufficient support in the Riksdag for its budget proposal, a government crisis arose which later culminated in the December agreement where the parties agreed on a new practice in future budget votes. The December agreement ended on October 9, 2015 due to the Christian Democrats leaving the cooperation.
On March 6, 2018, he visited the White House and had his first official meeting with US President Donald Trump .
Mandate period 2018–2022
After the 2018 parliamentary election , Löfven was voted out as Prime Minister by the Riksdag with the figures 204–142 in a prime ministerial vote on 25 September 2018 . The vote became historic as the first time a prime minister was voted out in a no-confidence vote. Löfven continued to lead a transitional government during the government negotiations , until a new government could be formed, which was delayed until January 2019. The main opponent Ulf Kristersson , party leader for the Moderates, however, failed to gather enough support to be accepted as prime minister. On 18 January 2019, Löfven was elected Prime Minister for a second term. This after entering into the so-called January agreement with the former Alliance parties Center Party and Liberals and with the Green Party . The Left Party also released Löfven as prime minister, however, under threat of a no-confidence motion if the January agreement were to be implemented.
In June 2021, the Left Party stated that they did not have confidence in Löfven and his government after the investigation proposal to introduce free rent for newly built apartments, which led to the government crisis in Sweden in 2021 . Subsequently, the Sweden Democrats filed a motion of no confidence in Löfven and his government. The no-confidence vote was held on 21 June and the Riksdag declared its no-confidence vote against the Prime Minister with 181 votes in favor of M, KD, SD, and V.
On 28 June, he and the Prime Minister were dismissed by the President. The government is then a transitional government, but Löfven remains as prime minister and the ministers serve in their positions until a new government is accepted by the Riksdag, only after rounds of presidential elections and then by-elections. On July 7, 2021, he was re-elected Prime Minister in the first prime ministerial vote.
During his summer speech on Runö, Åkersberga , on 22 August 2021 , Löfven announced that he will resign as party chairman of the Social Democrats at the party congress in Gothenburg on 3–7 November 2021 and then ask to be dismissed as prime minister .
On November 4, 2021, the party congress elected Magdalena Andersson as the new party chairman.
Löfven in the media
In a survey in Swedish Radio's program P1-Morgon in May 2020, six of the eight national media respondents answered that they did not think Stefan Löfven was sufficiently available for responsible interviews.For several years, Löfven has chosen to cancel his participation in Almedalen Week .
Awards
- Aaron Isaac Prize of the Jewish Congregation in Stockholm , 2021 .
