Romson and Fridolin to lead Sweden’s Greens

The pair were given a standing ovation after the vote.

“Thank you very much. It feels like standing on a platform with a ticket to a station that one has not yet visited. I am thankful for being able to be a member of the Green Party. It is nice to be home again,” said Gustav Fridolin.

Fridolin secured 94.9 percent of the votes while Åsa Romson received 68.5 percent and her main opponent Mikaela Valtersson received 20 percent.

“Thanks so much. You have given me the most honourable task I could imagine,” Romson said.

Gustav Fridolin is born in 1983 and has previously been head of the party’s youth league Grön ungdom. He served as a member of the Riksdag 2002-2006, when he left politics to work in television and as a teacher.

Fridolin returned to politics in 2010 and serves as an MP for Skåne and as the party’s industrial policy spokesperson.

Åsa Romson is born 1972 and is an environmental law solicitor. She resigned from her seat in the Riksdag in 2006 to pursue research.

Romson has worked within local politics in Stockholm and has for example worked for the introduction of the congestion charge. She returned as an MP in 2010 and has served as the party’s environmental policy spokesperson.

The pair replace the outgoing Maria Wetterstrand and Peter Eriksson who have served the party as spokespeople since 2002.