Margot Wallström | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Wallström in 2023 | |
| Deputy Prime Minister of Sweden | |
| In office 3 October 2014 – 10 September 2019 | |
| Monarch | Carl XVI Gustaf |
| Prime Minister | Stefan Löfven |
| Preceded by | Jan Björklund |
| Succeeded by | Morgan Johansson |
| Minister for Foreign Affairs | |
| In office 3 October 2014 – 10 September 2019 | |
| Prime Minister | Stefan Löfven |
| Preceded by | Carl Bildt |
| Succeeded by | Ann Linde |
| Minister for Nordic Cooperation | |
| In office 25 May 2016 – 21 January 2019 | |
| Prime Minister | Stefan Löfven |
| Preceded by | Kristina Persson |
| Succeeded by | Ann Linde |
| United Nations Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict | |
| In office April 2010 – 22 June 2012 | |
| Secretary General | Ban Ki-moon |
| Preceded by | Office established |
| Succeeded by | Zainab Bangura |
| First Vice-President of the European Commission | |
| In office 22 November 2004 – 9 February 2010 | |
| President | José Manuel Barroso |
| Preceded by | Position established |
| Succeeded by | Catherine Ashton |
| European Commissioner for Institutional Relations and Communication Strategy | |
| In office 22 November 2004 – 9 February 2010 | |
| President | José Manuel Barroso |
| Preceded by | Position established |
| Succeeded by | Maroš Šefčovič (Inter-Institutional Relations and Administration) |
| European Commissioner for the Environment | |
| In office 13 September 1999 – 11 November 2004 | |
| President | Romano Prodi |
| Preceded by | Ritt Bjerregaard |
| Succeeded by | Stavros Dimas |
| Minister for Consumer Affairs | |
| In office 4 October 1988 – 4 October 1991 | |
| Prime Minister | Ingvar Carlsson |
| Preceded by | Bengt K. Å. Johansson |
| Succeeded by | Inger Davidson |
| Member of the Riksdag | |
| In office 19 September 1982 – 11 September 1999 | |
| Constituency | Värmland |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Margot Elisabeth Wallström (1954-09-28)28 September 1954 (age 71) Skellefteå, Sweden |
| Party | Social Democrats |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 2 |
| Signature |  |
Margot Elisabeth Wallström (Swedish pronunciation:[ˈmǎrːɡɔtˈvâlːstrœm]; born 28 September 1954)[1] is a Swedish politician of theSwedish Social Democratic Party who served asDeputy Prime Minister of Sweden andMinister for Foreign Affairs from 2014 to 2019 andMinister for Nordic Cooperation from 2016 to 2019.
Wallström previously served as the firstUnited Nations Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict from 2010 to 2012,[2][3] asVice-President of the European Commission andEuropean Commissioner for Institutional Relations and Communication Strategy from 2004 to 2010,European Commissioner for the Environment from 1999 to 2004,Minister for Consumer Affairs from 1988 to 1991 andMember of the Riksdag (MP) forVärmland from 1982 to 1999.
Born inSkellefteå, Wallström is a high school graduate without academic degrees. In 1973, she started her career as a banking clerk at the Alfa Savings bank inKarlstad.[4] She worked there from 1977 to 1979, and briefly as an accountant from 1986 to 1987. Wallström was the CEO of a regional TV network inVärmland, Sweden from 1993 to 1994. Before taking up her appointment as EU Commissioner she was executive vice-president of Worldview Global Media inColombo, Sri Lanka.
Wallström has had a long career in politics in the Swedish parliament, the Swedish government, and theEuropean Commission. At 25, she was elected to parliament.[5] She wasEnvironment Commissioner from 1999 to 2004, and in the Swedish government she was Minister for Consumer Affairs, Women and Youth from 1988 to 1991, Minister for Culture from 1994 to 1996, and Minister for Social Affairs from 1996 to 1998.
During her time in office, Wallström pushed the European Commission's initial proposal forREACH, aregulation requiring manufacturers of industrial chemicals to test and register their products with theEuropean Chemicals Agency before they can be used.[6] In 2004, she approved the importation of agenetically modified corn from the United States for animal feed after a six-year moratorium, arguing in a statement that the corn produced by biotechnology companyMonsanto, known as NK603 maize, had been rigorously tested and was considered "as safe as any conventional maize".[7]
In 2004, Wallström became the first member of theEuropean Commission to operate a blog. The comments section of her site quickly became a hotspot for arguments concerning the policies of the European Union. After the rejection of theTreaty establishing a Constitution for Europe by French and Dutch voters, Wallström pushed forward her "plan D" (for democracy, dialogue and debate) to reconnect Citizens with the Union.[8] Her work on such platforms, including the backing of theoneseat.eu petition, has given her a good reputation in some quarters, even being dubbed "the Citizens Commissioner"[9] – but has earned her names like "the Propaganda Commissioner" as well from political opponents.The Economist listed her among the least effective commissioners in 2009.[10]
In 2006, Wallström presented her a plan to transform the EU'sEurope by Satellite (EbS) video-broadcast service into an EU news agency; the plan was scrapped after press organizations complained that it would undermine the work of reporters covering the EU.[11] Following Sweden's2006 election, in which the Social Democratic Party lost power, former Prime MinisterGöran Persson announced his withdrawal from politics in March 2007. Wallström was regarded as the favourite candidate to succeed Persson as Social Democratic party leader,[12] but made clear that she did not wish to be considered for the position.[13][14] The post instead went toMona Sahlin.
Between 2006 and 2007, Wallström served as member of theAmato Group, a group of high-level European politicians unofficially working on rewriting theTreaty establishing a Constitution for Europe into what became known as theTreaty of Lisbon following its rejection byFrench andDutch voters. Immediately after the election ofMona Sahlin as party leader, Wallström accepted a membership in a group working to develop political strategies for the upcomingelection to the European Parliament in 2009. The membership in this group was considered by Swedish liberalCarl B Hamilton (and later alsoFredrik Reinfeldt) to constitute a breach of the oath every member of the European Commission gives, which states that any member of the commission should work for the community's best interest with no influence from politicians. European Commission spokespeopleMikolaj Dowgielewicz and Pia Ahrenkilde-Hansen stated that her new assignment was not in conflict with her commissioner position.[15][16]
In December 2006, Wallström was voted the most popular woman in Sweden, beating royals and athletes in a survey carried out byICA-kuriren andSifo. In the previous year she had attained second place. Wallström was modest in response stating that "it might be because I'm so far away".[17] On 16 November 2007, Margot Wallström, became Chair of theCouncil of Women World Leaders Ministerial Initiative. This position was previously held by former U.S. Secretary of StateMadeleine K. Albright.
On 31 January 2010, the Secretary-General of the United Nations,Ban Ki-moon, announced at the African Union summit in Ethiopia his intention to nominate Wallström as his first everUnited Nations Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict.[18] As a reaction, Wallström said that she felt "honoured" and "humble" to have been chosen for the job,[19] which she started in April 2010.
In August 2010, Ban sent Wallström to theDemocratic Republic of the Congo to help investigate claims that rebel fighters raped more than 150 women and baby boys over four days within miles of a UN base in the country.[20] Wallström later addressed theUnited Nations Security Council in a September 2010 session on the use ofsexual violence as a weapon by both rebel militias andgovernment troops in the eastern provinces of the DRC. In her speech, she demonstrated that the rapes in theNorth Kivu andSouth Kivu provinces "were not an isolated incident but part of a broader pattern of widespread systematic rape and pillage".[21]
On 18 September 2010, Wallström confirmed that when her assignment with the UN came to an end in February 2012, she would become the chair of the University Board atLund University in Sweden.[22]
On 3 October 2014, when the Social Democratic leaderStefan Löfven became Prime Minister, Wallström was appointed to the Swedish government as Minister of Foreign Affairs.[23] On 30 October 2014, Wallström became the first EU foreign minister to recognise theState of Palestine, with a view to "facilitate a peace agreement by making the parties less unequal";[24] as a result, Israel the same day recalled its ambassador for consultations.[25] Although a visit by Wallström to Israel had been planned for January 2015, Israel's foreign ministerAvigdor Lieberman and prime ministerBenjamin Netanyahu declined to receive her.[26] Wallström's diplomatic immunity status in Israel was also revoked which meant that if she visited Israel she would do as an individual rather than an official of a foreign state, which would normally mean enjoying protection by security services.[26] In a March 2018 interview, she stated that the intent behind the recognition was to speed up the process towards aTwo-state solution but also admitted that no progress on that issue had been made.[27]
In December 2014, Wallström called in the Russian ambassador to Sweden, Victor Ivanovitj Tatarintsev, over the behaviour of a Russian military jet which Swedish authorities said had caused an SAS flight fromCopenhagen toPoznań, Poland, to change course off southern Sweden; the incident inflamed sensitivities over Russian flights in the Nordic region, driven in part by tensions over separatism in easternUkraine.[28] On 11 September 2015, she again summoned Russia's ambassador to explain comments from theRussian foreign ministry warning of "consequences" if Sweden joinsNATO.[29]
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In January 2015, Wallströmtweeted criticism ofSaudi Arabia's flogging of human rights activist bloggerRaif Badawi, calling it a "cruel attempt to silence modern forms of expression".[30] In May 2015,United Nations Secretary-GeneralBan Ki-moon appointed Wallström as member of the High-Level Panel on Humanitarian Financing, an initiative aimed at preparing recommendations for the 2016World Humanitarian Summit.[31] One of Wallström's main foreign policy goals was to secure one of the non-permanent seats for Sweden on the UN Security Council in the2016 elections.[32] This was achieved on 28 June 2016.[33]
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In February 2018, Wallström cancelled her visit toTurkey that was due in two weeks to protest theTurkish invasion of northern Syria aimed at ousting U.S.-backedSyrian Kurds from the enclave ofAfrin.[34] In December 2018, Wallström met with Iranian deputy foreign ministerAbbas Araghchi in her office, a meeting which was unannounced by the SwedishMinistry for Foreign Affairs.[35]
Wallström "promised a 'feminist' foreign policy when her Social Democrats formed the coalition government" in October 2014.[36] She has criticized the lack ofwomen's rights in Saudi Arabia.[37]The Spectator, the oldest continuously published magazine in the English language, wrote:
The Swedish foreign minister denounced the subjugation of women in Saudi Arabia. As the theocratic kingdom prevents women from travelling, conducting official business or marrying without the permission of male guardians, and as girls can be forced into child marriages where they are effectively raped by old men, she was telling no more than the truth.
On 10 March 2015 Sweden announced it would revoke a weapons export agreement with Saudi Arabia that had been in place since 2005.[38] Saudi Arabia retaliated by stoppingvisa issues for Swedish businesspeople, boycotting Wallström's speech from theArab League, temporarily withdrawing their ambassador from Sweden,[39][40] and refusing to accept fourAmazonian monkeys from a Swedish zoo.[41]
King Carl XVI Gustaf then offered to mediate with the Saudi king, and a fellow Social Democrat member of the government,Björn von Sydow, travelled to meetKing Salman bin Abdul Aziz andPrince Mohammad bin Salman Al Saud, taking him private letters from the Swedish King and from Prime MinisterStefan Löfven. These have remained classified, but in a press conference on 28 March, Wallström said: "I am very pleased to announce that we can normalize our relations immediately, and that we are able to welcome the Saudi ambassador back to Sweden. It is deeply satisfying that we have been able to clear the misunderstanding that we insulted the world religion Islam."[citation needed]
Wallström has called for more articles on Wikipedia about women-related topics.[42]
In 2005, Wallström, in her capacity as EU Commissioner responsible for communications, came under pressure to justify her handling of a controversial speech that linked opposition toEuropean integration with Nazi genocide, after it emerged she had changed the version published on the internet to remove the controversial passage. The original version of the speech, given to journalists ahead of Wallström's visit toTerezin in theCzech Republic to mark the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi concentration camp, suggested that scrapping the idea of asupranational Europe could put the continent back on the road to aholocaust.[43]
In the aftermath of theNovember 2015 Paris attacks in which 137 were murdered, Wallström told Swedish television networkSVT2: "To counteract the radicalization we must go back to the situation such as the one in the Middle East of which not the least the Palestinians see that, for us, there is no future: we must either accept a desperate situation or resort to violence." The Israeli government reacted angrily to Wallström's linking the attacks to theIsraeli–Palestinian conflict, summoning the Swedish ambassador and saying Wallström's statement bordered on antisemitism andblood libel.[44]
In December 2015, Wallström denounced theongoing wave of Palestinian knife and car-ramming attacks in Israel.[45] On 12 January 2016, Wallström called for an investigation into whether Israel was guilty of the extrajudicial killings ofPalestinians during the violence, causing further anger in the Israeli political establishment. The Foreign Ministry of Israel issued an official statement saying that Wallström's "irresponsible and delirious statements are giving support to terrorism and encouraging violence".[46] This also caused further deterioration in Israel-Sweden relations, and Deputy Foreign Minister of IsraelTzipi Hotovely declared that Swedish politicians of the rank of deputy minister and above are not welcome in Israel. Though she later clarified that it was only the Foreign Minister and her aids what are not welcome.[47] International law expertNoah Feldman stated Wallström misunderstandsinternational law, which does not apply in these cases.[48] TheSimon Wiesenthal Center placed Wallström at place eight on its annual list of the worst "anti-semitic/anti-israel incidents".[45]
Although she has criticized Israel, Wallström opposes theBoycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, supports Israel's right to defend itself, and is in favor of thetwo-state solution to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict.[49] She expressed her condemnation of BDS during an "Israel day" conference held by the Jewish community in Sweden.[50] During Wallström's December 2016 visit to Israel and thePalestinian Authority, many Israeli officials, including Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu, refused to meet her, citing scheduling conflicts. Some sources suggest that the refusal stemmed from Wallström's policy on Israeli–Palestinian conflict.[51] Wallström welcomed theUN Security Council Resolution 2334 and said it confirms the position of both the EU and Sweden on the continuedIsraeli settlement of the occupiedWest Bank.[52]
On 15 January 2016,Aftonbladet published information that Wallström was one of several labour officials who rented apartment in Stockholm, owned by theSwedish Municipal Workers' Union, bypassing an average eight-year waiting list. Wallström replied that she acted in good faith and received a confirmation from highest-ranking officials, that all norms and rules were followed.[53][54] Wallström accused the union's general secretaryAnnelie Nordström of not being truthful.[55] The affair caused a controversy[56] and prompted an investigation by a special prosecutor.[57] The prosecutor closed the investigation in May 2016 and cleared Wallström, stating that there was no evidence any crime had been committed.[58]
On 24 August 2016 Wallström tweeted that "Turkish decision to allow sex with children under 15 must be reversed. Children need more protection, not less, against violence, sex abuse." This was after theConstitutional Court of Turkey cancelled a constitutional provision that made all sexual activities with children under the age of 15 criminal assexual abuse. Turkish foreign ministerMevlüt Çavuşoğlu summoned Swedish ambassador for reprimand meeting and deputy prime ministerMehmet Simsek accused Wallström of being misinformed and acting without checking all facts. The original case was brought to the Constitutional Court by a lower court that was afraid there is no legal discrimination between teenagers that may understand the meaning of sex and toddlers that do not understand it.[59][60]
Wallström has been married to her husband, Håkan, since 1984.[5] She has two sons.[5] She lives inStockholm andVärmland.[5]
Interviewer: "När ni erkände Palestina som stat sa du de var för att påskynda utvecklingen mot en tvåstatslösning. Har den kommit närmare?" MW: – Nej, det kan man inte säga att den har gjort, men det beror inte så mycket på oss utan mer att USA aktivt tagit på sig en annan roll, och utvecklingen generellt i världen har ju inte hjälpt till."
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Minister of Civil Affairs 1988–1991 | Post discontinued |
| Preceded by | Minister for Culture 1994–1996 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Minister for Social Affairs 1996–1998 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Swedish European Commissioner 1999–2009 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | European Commissioner for the Environment 1999–2004 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | First Vice President of the European Commission 2004–2009 | Succeeded by |
| New office | European Commissioner for Institutional Relations and Communication Strategy 2004–2009 | Succeeded byasEuropean Commissioner for Inter-Institutional Relations and Administration |
| Preceded by | Deputy Prime Minister Serving with: Åsa Romson (honorary title) 2014–2016 Isabella Lövin (honorary title) 2016–2019 2014–2019 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Minister for Foreign Affairs 2014–2019 | Succeeded by |
| Lines of succession | ||
| First | Swedish governmental line of succession | Succeeded by |
| Order of precedence | ||
| Preceded by | Order of Precedence of Sweden | Succeeded by |
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