Landshövding
Landshövding (literally provincial chief - Finnish maaherra ) denotes in Sweden and Finland (as a bilingual country) the head of government of the provincial government (Swedish länsstyrelsen ), in one of the 21 Swedish Län and in the six Finnish Läänit .
The office was introduced in 1634 when Sweden was divided into fixed provinces. The landshövding was traditionally the king's personal deputy in the province. There are comparable offices in Denmark with the statsamtmand and in Norway with the fylkesmann. Landshövding has existed on Åland , the autonomous province of Finland, since 1918 .
Today the tasks of the landshövding are more representative and consist of representing the economic and cultural interests of the province. The office is a mandate of trust and is often awarded by the government as a retreat to deserving politicians. The term of office is six years. In 2008, for example, Per Unckel (former Minister of Education) were Landshövding in Stockholm County , Anders Björck (former Minister of Defense) in Uppsala County and Lars Engqvist (former Minister of Social Affairs) in Jönköpings County .
See also
- Finland as part of Sweden
- Governor
- Landshøvding (administrator of Greenland from 1950 to 1979)