Fredrik Reinfeldt

Fredrik Reinfeldt (2014)

John Fredrik Reinfeldt (born August 4, 1965 in Österhaninge , Stockholm County ) is a former Swedish politician. He was chairman of the liberal-conservative Moderate Collection Party (M) from October 2003 to January 2015 and was Prime Minister of Sweden from October 2006 to October 2014 .

Career

Reinfeldt during the WEF 2013

Reinfeldt joined the Moderate Youth Association ( Moderata ungdomsförbundet , MUF), the youth organization of the Moderate Collection Party , in 1983 . During his economics studies at Stockholm University in 1988/89 he was chairman of the conservative student organization Bürgerliche Studenten - Opposition '68 . After graduating in 1990, he was elected to the Swedish Parliament for the first time in 1991 .

In 1992 Reinfeldt was elected the new chairman of the Moderate Youth Association in a fighting vote with 58:55 votes. He represented a conservative group that was in opposition to the neoliberal orientation of the then chairman Ulf Kristersson. In this position, which he held until 1995, Reinfeldt initially supported the politics of the then bourgeois government coalition under the leadership of the chairman of the moderates, Carl Bildt , who sought to close ranks with the opposition Social Democrats during the economic crisis at the beginning of the 1990s, but criticized later the party leadership became more and more open. In 1993 he published the book The Sleeping People ( Det sovande folket ), in which he sharply attacked the Swedish welfare state and advocated social change in the spirit of neoliberalism . After the bourgeois parties' defeat in the election in 1994, he openly attacked party chairman Carl Bildt, whom he accused of too much dominance within the party. In his book Der Nostalgietrip ( Nostalgietrippen ), published shortly thereafter, Reinfeldt drew a dozen members of the moderate party leadership as "Carl Bildt copies" . This earned him sharp criticism from the moderate parliamentary group, which was of the opinion that Reinfeldt had exceeded the limits of what was reasonable. After a parliamentary group meeting on February 14, 1995, which Reinfeldt later described as "one big scandal" , he moderated his criticism and positioned himself in the political midfield of the party, but was no longer entrusted with any important political task in the following years. In 1997 Reinfeldt was the first president of the newly founded youth of the European People's Party (YEPP). It was not until 1999, after Bo Lundgren had been elected as the new party chairman, that Reinfeldt was elected to the parliamentary committee. From 2001 to 2002 he was chairman of the legal committee of the Reichstag.

After the heavy electoral defeat of the Moderate Collection Party in the Reichstag election in 2002, Reinfeldt became parliamentary group chairman, economics spokesman and deputy chairman of the budget committee.

Party chairman Moderate rally party

On October 25, 2003 Reinfeldt was unanimously elected as the new party chairman. In this function he quickly implemented significant changes in the party's political orientation, which he oriented more towards the center. Among other things, the demand for comprehensive tax cuts was dropped and the Swedish model of the welfare state was viewed less critically. For these changes , the catchphrase new moderates was coined, based on Tony Blair's slogan New Labor from the 1990s, with which he had proven his restructuring of the British Labor Party ; in addition, the slogan Sweden's New Labor Party was used, with which one attacked the Social Democrats ( Social Democratic Labor Party ). These innovations were not without controversy within the party - critics saw the party now dominated by the left-wing rhetoric of social democracy, while supporters considered the change necessary to win elections. They were confirmed by opinion polls, which showed a doubling of the approval ratings between 2002 and 2005.

Prime Minister of Sweden

In 2004 Reinfeldt was the driving force behind the formation of the bourgeois electoral alliance Allianz für Schweden ( Allians för Sverige ), which won the Reichstag elections in 2006 and replaced the social democratic government under Göran Persson .

With the Swedish EU Council Presidency in 2009 , Reinfeldt became the rotating chairman of the European Council on July 1, 2009 . He was also the last politician in this office, since the Lisbon Treaty came into force in the same six months , abolishing the rotating presidency and replacing it with an independent presidency . After the defeat of the “Alliance for Sweden” and the victory of the “Red Greens” in the 2014 Reichstag elections , he was replaced as Prime Minister by Stefan Löfven in October 2014 .

In addition, Reinfeldt was seen in a short film in the pause filler of the final at the Eurovision Song Contest 2013 .

After retiring from politics

After losing the Reichstag election, Reinfeldt announced his resignation from the party chairmanship of the moderates. He left the Reichstag at the end of 2014 and was replaced by Anna Kinberg Batra as party chairman on January 10, 2015 .

In 2015 Reinfeldt published the autobiography Halvväg ( Halfway through ). In 2016 he published Nya livet ( The New Life ), a book about the challenges of an aging society and technological development. Between December 29, 2016 and January 9, 2017, Sveriges Television broadcast the series Toppmötet ( Das Spitzentreffen ), in which Reinfeldt interviewed Condoleezza Rice , Jens Stoltenberg , Anders Fogh Rasmussen and Tony Blair - four international politicians with whom he interviewed had worked together as Prime Minister.

Private

In 1989 Reinfeldt met his future wife Filippa Holmberg at a congress of the moderate youth. The couple married three years later in Stockholm. The marriage resulted in three children: Gustav, Erik and Ebba. Filippa Reinfeldt was the community director (kommunalråd) in their common place of residence Täby until she was elected head of health care (sjukvårdslandstingsråd) by the Stockholm Provincial Parliament on November 7, 2006 . The couple announced their separation in March 2012 and divorce papers were filed in July. The couple divorced on February 20, 2013. Reinfeldt is a supporter of the Djurgårdens IF sports club .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ The Reinfeldt couple are getting divorced (Swedish) Svenska dagbladet online, July 11, 2012
2. ↑ Now Fredrik and Filippa (Swedish) are separating from Expressen online, February 20, 2013

Web links

Commons : Fredrik Reinfeldt  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Swedish government website
• Website of the Swedish Parliament