Gustav Fridolin

Gustav Fridolin
Minister for Education
Incumbent
Assumed office 3 October 2014
Monarch	Carl XVI Gustaf
Prime Minister	Stefan Löfven
Preceded by	Jan Björklund
Spokesperson of the Green Party
Incumbent
Assumed office 21 May 2011 Serving with Åsa Romson
Preceded by	Maria Wetterstrand Peter Eriksson
Member of the Riksdag
In office 4 October 2010 – 3 October 2014
Constituency	Skåne County North and East
In office 30 September 2002 – 2 October 2006
Constituency	Stockholm Municipality
Personal details
Born	10 May 1983 Vittsjö, Skåne County
Political party	Green Party
Spouse(s)	Jennie Fridolin
Children	1
Profession	Journalist, Teacher
Religion	Christianity[1]

Per Gustav Edvard Fridolin (born 10 May 1983) is a Swedish politician and the current Minister of Education, having been appointed in 2014. A journalist, author and teacher by profession, he has been the Green Party's joint spokesperson, together with Åsa Romson, since 2011.

Fridolin is a member of the Swedish parliament since the 2010 election, representing Skåne County North and East.^[2] He was also a member of the Swedish parliament from 2002 to 2006.

Biography

Fridolin was born in Vittsjö, Hässleholm Municipality, Skåne County, Sweden. He joined the Green Party in 1994 and served as one of two spokespersons of the Young Greens of Sweden between 1999 and 2003.^[3]

Fridolin first served as a member of the Swedish parliament between 2002 and 2006, representing the Stockholm Municipality constituency.^[2] Aged nineteen at the time, he was the youngest MP in Swedish history until 2010, when Anton Abele, a Moderate, set a new record.^[4] During his first term in parliament he served as a member of the Committee on the Constitution.^[2] Fridolin also served as a member of the board of the Green Party between 2004 and 2006, and was one of his party's representatives in the negotiations with the Social Democratic government and the Left Party.^[5]

In 2005 Fridolin announced that he would not be up for re-election as an MP in the 2006 election.^[6] Between 2006 and 2009 he worked as a reporter at the investigative television program Kalla fakta on TV4. He holds a Bachelor's degree from the Department of Oriental Languages at Stockholm University and a degree from Linköping University that qualifies him to teach at folk high schools, but he has never taught.

Fridolin again ran as a candidate for parliament in the 2010 election and was elected, representing the Skåne County North and East constituency.^[2] He is a member of the Committee on European Union Affairs in the parliament and a deputy member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, the Committee on Civil Affairs and the Committee on Industry and Trade.^[2]

Fridolin has written three books, all on politics. The first, titled Från Vittsjö till världen - om global apartheid och alla vi som vill någon annanstans (From Vittsjö to the world - about global apartheid and everyone of us that want to go somewhere), was released in 2006. His second book, titled Blåsta, was released in 2009, and his third book, Maskiner och människor - en skrift om arbete och framtidstro (Machines and men - writings on labour and belief in the future) was released in 2011. Machines and men was cowritten with Ulf Bodach Söderström and lays out a possible policy for an environmentally friendly industry.

Gustav Fridolin has been married to Jennie Fridolin since 2007. His political idols, aside from proponents of Green politics, include Liberal Prime Minister Karl Staaff of the early 20th century which he praised in a January 2011 article, espousing centrist and social liberal views.^[7]

In 2014 he became the Minister for Education in the Löfven Cabinet.

References

1. http://www.dagen.se/gustav-fridolin-om-sin-starka-f%C3%B6r%C3%A4ndringstro-1.139466
2. "Gustav Fridolin (MP)". Parliament of Sweden. 15 October 2010. Retrieved 18 August 2010.
3. "Reinfeldt 'open' to opposition deals - The Local". Retrieved 13 September 2014.
4. Lerner, Thomas (8 April 2010). "Lättare tappa fotfästet nära makten". Dagens Nyheter (in Swedish). Retrieved 19 August 2010.
5. Richard Orange. "Free-market era in Sweden swept away as feminists and greens plot new path to left - World news - The Observer". the Guardian. Retrieved 13 September 2014.
6. Stenberg, Ewa (19 February 2006). "Ung veteran lämnar politikens elitserie". Dagens Nyheter (in Swedish). Retrieved 19 August 2010.
7. Fridolin, Gustav (18 January 2011). "De gröna ska inta mitten i den svenska politiken". Dagens Nyheter (in Swedish). Retrieved 22 June 2011.

External links

• Official website (Swedish)
• Gustav Fridolin at the Green Party (Swedish)
• Gustav Fridolin at the Swedish parliament