Persson Cabinet

Göran Persson's cabinet
51st cabinet of Sweden
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Date formed	22 March 1996
Date dissolved	6 October 2006
People and organisations
Head of government	Göran Persson
Head of state	Carl XVI Gustaf
Member party	Social Democrats
Status in legislature	Single-party minority government
History
Election(s)	1998 election 2002 election
Predecessor	Ingvar Carlsson's Third Cabinet
Successor	Reinfeldt's Cabinet

Göran Persson served as Prime Minister of Sweden between 22 March 1996 and 6 October 2006. Persson took over after Ingvar Carlsson, who retired as party leader and Prime Minister. Following the 2006 general election, he and his cabinet lost power to a centre-right coalition government.

When Ingvar Carlsson in the fall of 1995 declared that he intended to resign as leader for the Social Democratic Party and prime minister of Sweden, deputy prime minister Mona Sahlin was the only one who accepted to run for that position. However, a scandal mainly concerning irresponsible use of her Riksdag credit card and unpaid parking tickets forced her to withdraw her candidacy that same fall. The search continued and Jan Nyman, Ingela Thalén as well as Göran Persson became the new possible candidates, but all of them declined to run when approached by the election board.

After repeatedly declining to candidate Göran Persson suddenly changed his mind, accepted and was elected new leader of the Social Democratic Party and prime minister of Sweden in March 1996. Göran Persson inherited a party with a solid representation in the parliament, in the 1994 election more than 45 percent of the voters had given his predecessor their vote. Still not leading a party with a majority of the seats in the parliament, Göran Persson relied on parliamentary support from the Centre Party when outlining his politics. He launched a series of criticized cut-back programs, defending them in a famous speech to the parliament starting with the expression "One who is in debt is not free".

He did not manage to convince the voters however and the 1998 general election became a huge setback for the Social Democratic Party, now supported by only 36,4 percent of the voters. The Moderate party leader, Carl Bildt, expressed his concerns about Göran Persson not resigning from office, as an outcome of the election. Bildt claimed that the government forming process should start all over with the Speaker of parliament selecting a prime minister based on his or her ability to form a government. He initiated a vote of no confidence, opposed by a majority formed by the Social Democratic Party as well as the Green and Left parties which were to be the new political partners. Eventually Göran Persson formed a one-party government, refusing to give seats to the Left or Green parties.

In the 2002 general election Persson gained an increase in voter support with 39,9 percent voting for his party, again the Moderate Party leader, this time Bo Lundgren, initiated a vote of no confidence targeting the whereabouts of the actual parliamentary support for Mr Persson. This time Persson was not backed by the Green Party, received support from a minority but managed to stay in office since the Green Party refrained from voting at all. He continued his one-party government policy, but extended his co-operation with the Green and Left parties for another four year term.

Ministers and Ministries

Cabinet

Portfolio	Minister	Took office	Left office
Prime Minister's Office
Prime Minister, Head of the Prime Minister's Office	Göran Persson	22 March 1996	6 October 2006
Deputy Prime Minister	Lena Hjelm-Wallén	7 October 1998	21 October 2002
	Margareta Winberg	21 October 2002	31 October 2004
	Lars Engqvist	1 June 2004	1 October 2004
Deputy Prime Minister Minister for Sport Minister for Policy Coordination on European Affairs (from 1 January 2005)	Bosse Ringholm	1 November 2004	6 October 2006
Minister of Weapon Export Topics	Leif Pagrotsky	1996	1997
Minister for Policy Coordination	Thage G. Peterson	1997	1998
	Pär Nuder	21 October 2002	21 October 2004
Ministry of Justice
Minister for Justice, Head of the Ministry of Justice	Laila Freivalds	7 October 1994	21 September 2000
	Lena Hjelm-Wallén (acting)	21 September 2000	15 October 2000
	Thomas Bodström	16 October 2000	6 October 2006
Minister for Democracy and Administration	Britta Lejon	1998	15 October 2002
Minister for Democracy, Urban affairs, Integration and Sports	Mona Sahlin	21 October 2002	21 October 2004
Minister for Democracy, Urban affairs, Integration and Equality	Jens Orback	21 October 2004	6 October 2006
Ministry for Foreign Affairs
Minister for Foreign Affairs, Head of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs	Lena Hjelm-Wallén	7 October 1994	7 October 1998
	Anna Lindh	7 October 1998	11 September 2003
	Jan O. Karlsson (acting)	11 September 2003	10 October 2003
	Laila Freivalds	10 October 2003	21 March 2006
	Bo Ringholm	21 March 2006	27 March 2006
	Carin Jämtin (acting)	27 March 2006	24 April 2006
	Jan Eliasson	24 April 2006	6 October 2006
Minister for Development Cooperation Minister of Eastern Europe Topics	Pierre Schori	7 October 1994	14 September 1999
Utrikeshandelsminister	Leif Pagrotsky	1998	21 October 2002
Bistånds- och migrationsminister	Maj-Inger Klingvall	14 September 1999	2001
	Jan O. Karlsson	7 January 2002	10 October 2003
Migrationsminister	Barbro Holmberg	10 October 2003	6 October 2006
Biståndsminister	Carin Jämtin	10 October 2003	6 October 2006
Ministry of Defence
Minister for Defence, Head of the Ministry of Defence	Thage G. Peterson	7 October 1994	1997
	Björn von Sydow	1997	21 October 2002
	Leni Björklund	21 October 2002	6 October 2006
Ministry of Health and Social Affairs
Minister for Health and Social Affairs, Head of the Ministry of Health and Social Affairs	Margot Wallström	1996	1998
	Anders Sundström	1998	1998
	Maj-Inger Klingvall (acting)	1998	1998
	Lars Engqvist	1998	1 October 2004
	Berit Andnor	2004	6 October 2006
Socialförsäkringsminister	Maj-Inger Klingvall	1996	14 September 1999
	Ingela Thalén	14 September 1999	10 October 2002
Barn- och familjeminister	Berit Andnor	21 October 2002	2004
Folkhälso- och socialtjänstminister	Morgan Johansson	21 October 2002	6 October 2006
Vård- och äldreomsorgsminister	Ylva Johansson	2004	6 October 2006
Ministry of Communications
Minister of Communications	Ines Uusmann	7 October 1994	1998
	Björn Rosengren (acting)	1998	1998
Ministry of Finance
Minister of Fininace	Erik Åsbrink	1996	12 April 1999
	Bosse Ringholm	12 April 1999	21 October 2004
	Pär Nuder	21 October 2004	6 October 2006
Minister of Taxes	Thomas Östros	1996	1998
Kommun- och bostadsminister	Lars Engqvist	1998	1998
	Lars-Erik Lövdén	1999	21 October 2004
Minister for International Monetary Exchange	Gunnar Lund	21 October 2002	2004
Kommun- och finansmarknadsminister	Sven-Erik Österberg	21 October 2004	6 October 2006
Ministry of Education, Research and Culture
Minister of Education	Carl Tham	7 October 1994	1998
	Thomas Östros	1998	21 October 2004
Minister of Education and Culture	Leif Pagrotsky	21 October 2004	6 October 2006
Skolminister	Ylva Johansson	7 October 1994	1998
	Ingegerd Wärnersson	1998	2002
	Ibrahim Baylan	21 October 2004	6 October 2006
Förskole- och ungdomsminister, minister för vuxnas lärande	Lena Hallengren	21 October 2002	6 October 2006
Ministry of Agriculture
Minister of Agriculture	Annika Åhnberg	1996	1998
Minister of Agriculture and Gender Equality	Margareta Winberg	1998	21 October 2002
Jordbruks- och konsumentminister	Ann-Christin Nykvist	21 October 2002	6 October 2006
Ministry of Employment
Arbetsmarknadsminister	Margareta Winberg	1996	1998
	Björn Rosengren (acting)	1998	1998
Jämställdhets- och arbetsrättsminister	Ulrica Messing	1996	1998
Ministry of the Interior
Minister of the Interior	Jörgen Andersson	1996	1998
	Lars Engqvist (acting)	1998	1998
	Lars-Erik Lövdén	1998	1998
Integrations-, idrotts-, ungdoms- och konsumentminister	Leif Blomberg	1996	2 March 1998
	Lars Engqvist	1998	1998
Ministry of Culture
Minister of Culture	Marita Ulvskog	1996	13 September 2004
	Pär Nuder (acting)	13 September 2004	21 October 2004
Ministry of Integration, Sports and Youth Topics	Ulrica Messing	1998	2000
Ministry of Sustainable Development
Minister of the Environment	Anna Lindh	7 October 1994	1998
	Kjell Larsson	1998	15 October 2002
	Lena Sommestad	21 October 2002	6 October 2006
Deputy Minister of the Environment	Lena Sommestad	2002	2002
Samhällsbyggnadsminister	Mona Sahlin	21 October 2004	6 October 2006
Ministry of Industry, Employment and Communications
Minister of Enterprise, Energy and Communications	Anders Sundström	1996	1998
	Björn Rosengren	1998	15 October 2002
	Leif Pagrotsky	21 October 2002	21 October 2004
	Thomas Östros	21 October 2004	6 October 2006
Handelsminister	Björn von Sydow	1996	1997
	Leif Pagrotsky	1997	1998
Deputy Minister of Enterprise, Energy and Communications	Mona Sahlin	1998	21 October 2002
Minister for Infrastructure	Ulrica Messing	2000	6 October 2006
Arbetslivsminister	Hans Karlsson	21 October 2002	6 October 2006

Controversies and public perception

Suspected ballot rigging

After the 2002 elections, electoral workers in the Stockholm area expressed concerns about how Social Democratic campaign workers had collected large amounts of voting cards from voters and voted on their behalf. To collect large amounts of voting cards and vote in such a way is unconstitutional and therefore gained some initial media attention. The county and city of Stockholm, governed by a coalition led by the Moderate Party, became subject to change of leadership as a result of the election and the criticism was quickly silenced. The circumstances of the suspected ballot rigging was never investigated. There have been other cases that have led to evictions at 2002 elections for ballot rigging by Social democratic party members working in the election offices. Many reports of other ballot rigging have also been announced throughout the country by other parties but in lack of proof none has gone to court.

Handling of the Tsunami disaster

During 2005 a scandal erupted as a result of widespread discontent with the lack of government aid to Swedes who fell victims to the notorious Tsunami disaster, killing hundreds of Swedish tourists in December 2004. The criticism emerged early since the government refused to give clearance to prepared Swedish military rescue planes to aid in the rescue efforts in Asia. The planes were left stranded on Swedish airfields and Swedish tourists, in many cases severely injured, had to wait for the few crowded regular flights that were available back home to Sweden. A committee initiated an investigation in 2005 to shed some light on what really happened during the Christmas of 2004 and if anyone ever had noticed the early reports from the Swedish military intelligence offices. The scandal escalated into a case for the Swedish standing committee of constitution inqueries (constitutional court) as it became evident that Swedish government officials either lied or refused to answer properly to the questions asked by the investigators. In early 2006 the whole scandal reached its climax as the top-ministers, including the primeminister, were interrogated under trial-like circumstances broadcast live in Swedish television. There has also been suspicious deletion of communication traffic registers and e-mails regarding the time of this event. A directive was changed to delete this kind of data after a shorter time and after it had been done the directive was once again revised to its original writing. After the election and a new cabinet come to be in power. Backup tapes of the deleted information has now been found stored in a vault in the cellar.

Persson accused of threatening TV4

During the live broadcast interrogations the CEO of the largest privately held Swedish TV-channel, Jan Scherman, claimed that primeminister Göran Persson threatened him during the election campaign in 2002. According to Mr. Scherman, Persson said that "TV4 is investing heavy in a non-socialistic election victory", if the socialists wins you "will have a lots of enemies in Rosenbad". The claims never gained as much public interest as did the other scandals, even though the accusations enhanced the image of Mr. Persson trying to gain control of the major free media companies. In Sweden, the Swedish Television, SVT, with the other two large TV-channels, SVT1 and SVT2, is connected to the government and Social Democrats hold key positions among the board of directors. Björn Rosengren, Social Democrat, former Minister of Enterprise and close friend of Göran Persson, has rapidly gained an influential position in the Swedish media company MTG which in turn owns TV-channels and newspapers such as Metro International.

Defamation campaign in 2006

In 2006 an extensive e-mail based defamation campaign primarily targeting the family of Swedish leading opposition politician Fredrik Reinfeldt was revealed in Swedish media. The content of the letters written were rumours about irregularities or illegal actions claimed to have been performed by Fredrik Reinfeldt himself or his close relatives. According to computer specialists the source of the campaign had been tracked down to computers located at the Social Democratic HQ in central Stockholm. Initially spokespersons of the Social Democratic Party denied all involvement in the defamation but were later forced to confess that one of their employees had written the letters as evidence became overwhelming. The case was reported to the police by the Moderate Party but was closed a few days later since it was considered a private law-issue.

The Pirate Bay Affair

The raid of 31 May 2006 on The Pirate Bay ISP PRQ is thought to be a direct result of the justice minister Thomas Bodström. As a result he is now the subject of an investigation by the Constitutional Committee. This type of 'interference' in the functioning of independent authorities such as the police, called 'ministerstyre', is by Swedish law prohibited. Media requested to see e-mails that could be relevant to the matter but the 700 of the 900 e-mails requested were denied on the basis that they were top secret declaration. Previously, the government said that the matter would be open for public review. When it was asked why the e-mails had been declared top secret Thomas Bodström said that they were covered by the secrecy declaration which is determined by the government.

Minister of foreign affairs resigns

In the aftermaths of criticism following on the Tsunami disaster, the harshly criticised Swedish minister of foreign affairs, Laila Freivalds, managed to maintain her office. However in 2006 another embarrassing scandal erupted with its roots in Denmark where paintings of the Muslim prophet Muhammed were published during the fall of 2005. A Swedish right-wing political newspaper decided to publish them as well on the Internet edition of their publication, the webpage however was quickly closed down by the ISP after intervention from the Swedish Security Service and the Swedish office of foreign affairs. The close down became subject to much debate and some journalists compared it to the censorship of anti-German articles during WWII. Mrs. Freivalds denied at first all involvement in the case, but was forced to confess as official reports clearly pointed out her central role in the closing of the webpage. The political pressure became too much and primeminister Göran Persson, flanked by Mrs. Freivalds herself, chose to briefly declare the resignation of his minister of foreign affairs under a short press conference. That Freivalds did not declare the expected news herself, despite the fact that she was obviously present on the press conference, quickly spurred discussions about whether she resigned voluntarily or actually got dismissed by the primeminister.

External links

• The Government and the Government Offices of Sweden
• Statement of Government Policy (6 October 2006)

Preceded by Third cabinet of Ingvar Carlsson

Cabinet of Sweden 1996-2006

Succeeded by Cabinet of Fredrik Reinfeldt