From 1925 to 2006, the Swedish Social Democratic Party (SAP) had five different leaders, a position that always came with a second job: prime minister. After eight turbulent years in opposition that have seen two party leaders come and go, 2014 offers new hopes, with both European and national elections. It can be the SAP’s […]
Stefan Löfven was born in Stockholm in 1957, and arrived in Sunnersta in northern Sweden as a foster child, at only ten months old. He played ice hockey while growing up and formed a social democratic youth club inspired by Olof Palme’s internationalism. He briefly went to university in Umeå but became a welder instead and worked at Hägglunds (a combat and all terrain vehicles company) from 1979 to 1995. He got his first trade union commitment in 1981 and ended up as the president of IF Metall (2006-2012). Löfven has been a member of the Executive Committee of the SAP since 2005, and was elected party leader in January 2012.