Annie Lööf
Annie Lööf | |
---|---|
![]() Annie Lööf in July 2018. | |
Leader of the Centre Party | |
Assumed office 23 September 2011 | |
Party secretary | Michael Arthursson |
Preceded by | Maud Olofsson |
Minister for Enterprise | |
In office 29 September 2011 – 3 October 2014 | |
Prime Minister | Fredrik Reinfeldt |
Preceded by | Maud Olofsson |
Succeeded by | Mikael Damberg |
Member of the Riksdag | |
Assumed office 17 September 2006 | |
Constituency | Jönköping County |
Personal details | |
Born | Annie Marie Therése Johansson 16 July 1983 Värnamo, Sweden |
Political party | Centre Party |
Spouse | Carl-Johan Lööf |
Children | 2 daughters |
Alma mater | Lund University (LL.M.) |
Occupation | Politician |
Website | annieloof.se |
Annie Marie Therése Lööf (Swedish: [anːɪ maˈriː tɛˈreːs ˈløːv];[first name tone?] née Johansson; born 16 July 1983) is a Swedish politician and lawyer. She has been a Member of the Riksdag, representing her home constituency of Jönköping County, since 2006, and leader of the Centre Party since 2011.[1] Lööf served as Minister for Enterprise from 2011 to 2014, in the later Reinfeldt Cabinet.
Early life and career
Annie Lööf was born and raised in the small village of Maramö, near Värnamo. At school in the 1990s, she shared a class with children of refugees fleeing wars in the Balkans.[2] During her last year at Finnvedens Secondary School in Värnamo, where she studied social sciences, she developed an interest in politics.
Political career
Early beginnings
At the end of 2001 Lööf joined the Centre Party. During the 2002 general election she was employed as an election agent for the party's youth organization (CUF) in Jönköping County and in the same year she won a Dag Hammarskjöld Scholarship, which gave her the chance to immerse herself in international peace and environmental issues at the UN Headquarters in New York.[3] After the election she enrolled to study law at Lund University and was awarded a professional degree in law (LL.M.) in August 2011.
Member of Parliament, 2006–present
In the general election of 2006 Lööf was elected to the Riksdag, being at that time the youngest member of the legislature.[4]
In January 2007, together with her colleague Fredrick Federley, Lööf initiated the Liberal Group, a network of liberal-minded people both inside and outside the Riksdag. She has also been the vice president of CUF. For several years she served on the board of the Nordic Centre Youth Federation, Scandinavia's second largest youth organization.[citation needed]
In 2008 Lööf was awarded the "Young European Leadership Program" grant from the United States Embassy.[citation needed]
Before she became a minister and party leader, Annie Lööf was member of the Committee on Finance, the War Delegation and a vicepresident of the Committee on Justice and first Deputy House Leader for the Centre Party's parliamentary group and member of the party's executive board. She has served as a member on several government commissions, including the E-Publicity Committee, the investigation of the police needs of signal intelligence and in the signals intelligence committee, which evaluated the National Defence Radio Establishment activities.[citation needed]
During her two terms, she has been active in municipal politics in Värnamo, as deputy of the City Council from 2002 to 2004, as member of the Citizens' Board from 2002 to 2004, as well as ordinary municipal councillor from 2006 to 2007. Lööf was also elected to the local councils for Värnamo in 2010, but left the mission because of many national commitments. Until 2008 Lööf was a substitute to the Nordic Council's Swedish delegation, and the pre-term in office she worked for the Committee on the Constitution as a member.[citation needed]
After the 2010 general election, Lööf was elected chairman of the National Post-Election Analysis Group the Centre Party appointed. The Analysis Group presented its report in January 2011. The same year she became Spokesperson for Financial and Economic Affairs of her party.[5] On 31 August 2011 the Centre Partys Nomination Commité proposed Annie Lööf as the Party President and on the party's congress in Åre on 23 September she was elected by acclamation.[6]
Leader of the Centre Party, 2011–present
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/74/Annie_l%C3%B6%C3%B6f_stora_tillv%C3%A4xtdagen.jpg/220px-Annie_l%C3%B6%C3%B6f_stora_tillv%C3%A4xtdagen.jpg)
Lööf was elected leader and party president on 23 September 2011, succeeding Maud Olofsson, at the party congress in Åre. She thus became the Centre Party's youngest-ever party leader.
On 29 September 2011 Lööf succeeded Maud Olofsson as Minister for Business and Enterprise. She also saw to replace Minister for the Environment Andreas Carlgren with Lena Ek, former MEP, and gave birth for to new cabinet post Minister for IT and Energy who Anna-Karin Hatt (former candidate for the party leadership) was given. The Minister for Rural and Farming Affairs, Eskil Erlandsson kept his seat.
During Almedalsveckan 2012, in her address at the Centre Party gathering, Lööf criticized the government of which she was a part for its inability to keep up the pace of reform that had been a leading part of the Alliance platform in 2006, and urged a revival. "The joint project has lost momentum. Project embers have died down," she said.[7] These points were met with fierce opposition from the other cabinet parties, mainly from the Christian Democrats and the party secretary Acko Ankarberg.[8] The speech also drew attention because of the caustic review by Social Democrat former minister of culture Marita Ulvskog: "New speechwriter for Annie Lööf? unfortunately didn't help. Credibility none. Would work in Top Model, not in reality" she wrote on Twitter.[9] Ulvskog later apologized for some of the wording.
On 6 August 2012 Lööf dismissed Christina Lugnet, the Director-General of Tillväxtverket, after it had become known that Lugnet's government agency had spent approximately 16 million SEK on mostly internal representation over a brief period of time: banquets, kick-offs, hotel stays for its personnel and conferences.[10] This was out of bounds under Swedish law and by the agency's own rules.[11]
On 8 August, it became known that Lööf used taxpayers' money for a number of restaurant visits, including banquets for her staff.[12] A memo was revealed to have amounted 20 000 SEK.[13] The Centre Party has subsequently repaid these expenses to the treasury, as it was for party activities.[14]
After the parliamentary election in 2014, Lööf's trust figures raised dramatically. In 2017, Annie Lööf had the highest trust figures of any major political party leader in Sweden by Swedish voters.[15][16]
In June 2017, Lööf attended the Bilderberg Meeting in Chantilly, Virginia, in the United States.[17]
Following the inconclusive elections in 2018, the speaker of Sweden’s parliament Andreas Norlén asked Lööf to explore the possibility of forming a new government.[18] Löof subsequently tried to build support for a broad government which excluded the Sweden Democrats and the Left Party and kept intact the centre-right Alliance, a four-party bloc of which the Center is part.[19] She abandoned her bid to form a new government one week later.[20] In January 2019, she eventually led her party to abandon its traditional center-right allies and back Social Democrat leader Stefan Löfven as Prime Minister.[2]
Other activities
- Trilateral Commission, Member of the European Group[21]
- Swedish Agency for Youth and Civil Society, Member of the Advisory Council
- Coompanion, Member of the Board of Directos
Personal life
Lööf is the daughter of Centre Party politician Hans-Göran Johansson, the current Mayor of Värnamo Municipality. On 30 July 2011 Lööf married Carl-Johan Lööf and took his surname.[22] On 10 September 2015 she gave birth to a daughter named Ester.[23][24] She had a second daughter, Saga, on 3 December 2019 who was born prematurely.[25][26] They live in Nacka, Stockholm.[citation needed]
References
- ^ "Enig centerrörelse valde Annie Lööf till ny partiordförande" (Press release) (in Swedish). Centre Party. 23 September 2011. Archived from the original on 26 September 2011. Retrieved 23 September 2011.
- ^ a b Johan Ahlander and Simon Johnson (18 January 2019), Braving outrage, Swedish liberal Loof dumps partners to block populists Reuters.
- ^ "Vi får inte glömma Nigerdeltat (Almedalsveckan – fredag" (in Swedish). Retrieved 15 September 2014.
- ^ "Födelseår". Sveriges Riksdag. Archived from the original on 15 October 2010. Retrieved 26 September 2011.
- ^ "Centerpartiets förnyelse i fokus när nya talespersoner utses" (Press release). Centerpartiet. 8 October 2010. Archived from the original on 18 November 2011. Retrieved 26 September 2011.
- ^ TT (23 September 2011). "Annie Lööf redo för rivstart". Göteborgs-Posten. Archived from the original on 25 September 2011. Retrieved 26 September 2011.
- ^ "Lööf want to see a reawakening (in Swedish)". Expressen. Retrieved 13 September 2014.
- ^ "Cold war in the Alliance (in Swedish)". Aftonbladet. Retrieved 13 September 2014.
- ^ "S-leader: "It shows too little respect" (in Swedish)". Expressen. Retrieved 13 September 2014.
- ^ "Christina Lugnet gets fired from Tillväxtverket (in Swedish)". Expressen. Retrieved 13 September 2014.
- ^ "Against their own rules. (in Swedish)". di.se. 6 August 2012. Retrieved 13 September 2014.
- ^ "Lööf get criticized – from all sides. (in Swedish)". Aftonbladet. Retrieved 13 September 2014.
- ^ "Here is the minister's tavern bills. (in Swedish)". Aftonbladet. Retrieved 13 September 2014.
- ^ "Olof Johansson (C): "They can afford it.". (in Swedish)". Expressen. Retrieved 13 September 2014.
- ^ "Annie Lööf ny etta på förtroendelistan - DN.SE". DN.SE (in Swedish). 25 January 2017. Retrieved 4 March 2017.
- ^ TT. "Annie Lööf i förtroendetopp". SvD.se (in Swedish). Retrieved 4 March 2017.
- ^ "Participants 2017". www.bilderbergmeetings.org. Retrieved 3 October 2019.
- ^ Eline Schaart (15 November 2018), Swedish Centre Party leader to head new government talks Politico Europe.
- ^ Niklas Pollard and Robin Pomeroy (22 November 2018), Swedish government talks stalled as Center party leader gives up Reuters.
- ^ Eline Schaart (22 November 2018), Swedish government talks stall again Politico Europe.
- ^ Membership Trilateral Commission.
- ^ "Centerpolitikern Annie Johansson har gift sig". Expressen (in Swedish). Retrieved 13 September 2014.
- ^ "Annie Lööf har fött barn" (in Swedish). Aftonbladet. Retrieved 12 July 2017.
- ^ "Annie Lööf gravid: "Vår dotter ska bli storasyster"" (in Swedish). Expressen. Retrieved 4 December 2019.
- ^ "Annie Lööf har fått en dotter" (in Swedish). Sveriges Television. 4 December 2019. Retrieved 4 December 2019.
- ^ "Annie Lööf (C) tackar neonatalvården" (in Swedish). Aftonbladet. Retrieved 11 December 2019.
External links
Media related to Annie Lööf at Wikimedia Commons
- Annie Lööf at the Riksdag website
- Official website
(in Swedish)
- 1983 births
- Living people
- People from Värnamo Municipality
- Centre Party (Sweden) politicians
- Members of the Riksdag
- Members of the Riksdag 2006–2010
- Members of the Riksdag 2010–2014
- Members of the Riksdag 2014–2018
- Members of the Riksdag 2018–2022
- Women members of the Riksdag
- Women government ministers of Sweden
- 21st-century Swedish women politicians
- Lund University alumni