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One woman makes Sweden’s power top-ten

Only one woman, Enterprise Minister Annie Lööf, has made it into an annual top-ten list of the most powerful Swedes.

Published: 23 November 2012 12:13 CET
One woman makes Sweden's power top-ten

Politicians dominated this year’s ranking published by news magazine Fokus, with Lööf, who also heads the Centre Party, coming in seventh.

She has, however, been downgraded from last year’s third place, with Fokus noting that questions about her ministry’s representation budget saw voter-confidence take a tumble.

The prime minister, Fredrik Reinfeldt, maintained his hold at the top of the list, which includes 100 Swedes from different parts of society.

RELATED GALLERY: SWEDEN’S TEN MOST POWERFUL PEOPLE

Pony-tailed Finance Minister Anders Borg, meanwhile, repeated as runner-up on the list.

He is followed by Social Democrat leader Stefan Löfven, who took over the left-of-centre party this year after it suffered months of opinion-poll drudgery.

Last year, Löfven had been ranked the 20th most powerful Swede when he still controlled the metal workers union IF Metall.

Liberal Party (Folkpartiet) head and Education Minister Jan Björklund, who also serves as Deputy Prime Minister, came in fourth.

Karl-Petter Thorvaldsson, who took over the reigns of blue-collar Swedish Trade Union Confederation (LO) earlier this year, made a high-ranking debut on the Fokus list, grabbing fifth place.

Thorvaldsson is followed by the first of two businessmen to make the top ten.

Leif Johansson, board chairman of both telecom giant Ericsson and pharmaceutical heavy-weight Astra Zeneca, was ranked sixth.

Then comes Lööf, the lone woman among her powerful peers.

Hot on her heels is the head of another minority party in the centre-right government coalition, Göran Hägglund, who apart from heading the Social Affairs Ministry spent part of the year successfully stamping out an internal Christian Democrat Part rebellion against his leadership.

Marcus Wallenberg, chairman of the board at SEB bank, LKAB and Saab, was ranked ninth.

Meanwhile, Riksbank head Stefan Ingves rounded out the top ten, having dropped three spots from his seventh place ranking last year.

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POLITICS

Over a thousand people join protest against Stockholm attack

Over a thousand people joined a demonstration in Gubbängen, southern Stockholm, on Saturday, protesting Wednesday's attack by far-right extremists on a lecture organised by the Left and Green parties.

Published: 27 April 2024 15:36 CEST
Over a thousand people join protest against Stockholm attack

The demonstration, which was organised by the Left Party and the Green Party together with Expo, an anti-extremist magazine, was held outside the Moment theatre, where masked assailants attacked a lecture organised by the two parties on Wednesday. 

In the attack, the assailants – described as Nazis by Expo – let off smoke grenades and assaulted several people, three of whom were hospitalised. 

“Let’s say it how it is: this was a terror attack and that is something we can never accept,” said Amanda Lind, who is expected to be voted in as the joint leader of the Green Party on Sunday. 

She said that those who had attended the lecture had hoped to swap ideas about how to combat racism. 

“Instead they had to experience smoke bombs, assault and were forced to think ‘have they got weapons’?. The goal of this attack was to use violence to generate fear and silence people,” she said.  

EXPLAINED: What we know about the attack on a Swedish anti-fascist meeting

More than a thousand people gathered to protest the attack on a theatre in Gubbängen, Stockholm. Photo: Oscar Olsson/TT

Nooshi Dadgostar, leader of the Left Party, said that that society needed to stand up against this type of extreme-right violence. 

“We’re here today to show that which should be obvious: we will not give up, we will stand up for ourselves, and we shall never be silenced by racist violence,” said said.

Sofia Zwahlen, one of the protesters at the demonstration, told the DN newspaper that it felt positive that so many had turned up to show their opposition to the attacks. 

“It feels extremely good that there’s been this reaction, that we are coming together. I’m always a little worried about going to this sort of demonstration. But this feels safe.”

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