Mona Sahlin

Sahlin was born Mona Ingeborg Andersson in Sollefteå, Västernorrland County, Sweden. Her father, Hans Andersson, worked at youth care schools community homes. In the mid-1960s, the family moved to Järla in Stockholm County where they remained. Her father later became an advisor to former Prime Minister Ingvar Carlsson.

In 1964, at the age of seven, Sahlin founded the Swedish "Barbie Club".{{Cite web|title= Sverige. Mona Sahlin blir socialdemokraternas sjunde ordförande på hundra år. Hon blir den första kvinnan i toppen. Och hon kommer bättre förberedd till partiledarposten än någon av sina föregångare. |date= 10 March 2007|website= Sverige|url= http://www.sydsvenskan.se/sverige/article223721.ece|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20120208083559/http://www.sydsvenskan.se/sverige/article223721.ece|access-date=5 September 2021|archive-date= 8 February 2012}} During her childhood, she also enjoyed soccer and music. Sahlin performed as one of the back up singers to Jan Malmsjö, in the selection for the song to represent Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest 1969.{{Cite web|title= SVT kämpar för att Mona ska få sjunga|url= https://www.aftonbladet.se/nojesbladet/a/ddwayw/svt-kampar-for-att-mona-ska-fa-sjunga|date=14 March 2004|access-date=5 September 2021|website=Aftonbladet}} The song was written by Benny Andersson and Lasse Berghagen and it came in second place.

Sahlin was educated at Nacka Samskola and Södra Latin in Stockholm and completed secondary school in 1977. From 1976 to 1977, she was vice chairperson of the Swedish Pupils' Association.{{Cite web|date=2007-09-10 |access-date=5 September 2021|title=CV|url= http://www.socialdemokraterna.se/Mona-Sahlin/CV-/ |website= socialdemokraterna |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100608140753/http://www.socialdemokraterna.se/Mona-Sahlin/CV-/|archive-date=8 June 2010}} Thereafter she worked at a private company and later as a trade union representative for the Swedish National Union of State Employees.

File:Mona Sahlin-02.jpg

At age 13, Sahlin joined the Swedish support group for the Viet Cong. Sahlin's political career began in the Swedish Social Democratic Youth League in Nacka, Stockholm County, in 1973, at the age of 16. This was during the Vietnam War, and already as a 13-year-old Sahlin had joined the Swedish FNL group.{{cite news|first=Kari |last=Molin |title=Klart att hon kan, vill och törs |url=https://www.dn.se/?a=607379 |publisher=Dagens Nyheter |date=18 January 2007 |access-date=24 January 2007 |language=sv |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071001151221/http://www.dn.se/?a=607379 |archive-date=1 October 2007}}

In the Swedish general election of 1982, Sahlin was elected to the Riksdag as the youngest member of parliament at that time. In 1990, she became Minister for Employment, but after the Social Democrats lost power in the 1991 election, Sahlin began to serve as chairman of the Riksdag's Committee on the Labour Market and as spokesman for the Social Democrats on labour market issues. From 1992 to 1994, she was party secretary. During this period, she openly criticized government reforms, particularly on social welfare and employees' rights, maintaining they needed to be reversed.{{Cite book|title=European Welfare Policy: Squaring the Welfare Circle|last=Taylor-Gooby|first=Peter|publisher=Macmillan Education|year=1996|isbn=978-0-333-60917-0|location=New York|pages=90}} She left her position to rejoin the government as Minister for Gender Equality and Deputy Prime Minister, when the Social Democrats regained power in the 1994 election.

In October 1995, the newspaper Expressen following an investigation led by Christian Democratic Spanish-Swedish Public Auditor Carlos Medina de Rebolledo reported that Sahlin, who was then serving as Deputy Prime Minister and was widely seen as the main candidate to succeed Ingvar Carlsson as Prime Minister, had charged {{Currency|53174|SEK2}} for private expenses on her working charge card, which was only for working expenses.{{cite news|last1=Holmen|first1=Christian|title=A long series of loans and debts (En lång rad av lån och skulder)|work=Expressen|date=13 October 1995|language=sv}} At a news conference, she admitted that she had used a Government credit card to buy groceries. She further confessed to having failed to pay 19 parking tickets and several bills for her children's day care on time. Later, she apologized in a Stockholm newspaper.{{cite news|last1=Kinzer|first1=Stephen|author-link1=Stephen Kinzer|title=Stockholm Journal;The Shame of a Swedish Shopper (a Morality Tale)|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1995/11/14/world/stockholm-journal-the-shame-of-a-swedish-shopper-a-morality-tale.html|access-date=7 July 2015|work=The New York Times|date=14 November 1995|location=Stockholm|archive-date=10 July 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150710204033/http://www.nytimes.com/1995/11/14/world/stockholm-journal-the-shame-of-a-swedish-shopper-a-morality-tale.html|url-status=live}} A preliminary investigation was initiated by the chief prosecutor {{Ill|Jan Danielsson|sv}}, as a result of the transactions, and was closed in early 1996 when it came to the conclusion that there was no infringement. She eventually paid the bills (along with an extra of {{Currency|15000|SEK2|linked=no}}, which was later returned) to the Treasury.{{cite news|title=Nu är toblerone- affären historia|url=http://www.aftonbladet.se/nyheter/article412124.ab|access-date=7 July 2015|work=Aftonbladet|date=16 March 2007|location=Stockholm|language=sv|archive-date=17 October 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121017023319/http://www.aftonbladet.se/nyheter/article412124.ab|url-status=live}} The controversy was dubbed as the "Toblerone affair" due to the inclusion of Toblerone bars on the credit card statement.{{cite news |first=Britta |last=Svensson |title=Nej det handlade inte bara om Toblerone... |url=http://www.expressen.se/1.511241 |publisher=Expressen |date=5 January 2007 |access-date=8 July 2015 |language=sv |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121021163802/http://www.expressen.se/kronikorer/britta-svensson/britta-svensson-nej-det-handlade-inte-bara-om-toblerone/ |archive-date=21 October 2012 |url-status=dead}}

From 1996 to 1997, Sahlin worked as a self-employed owner of a small company and as a television reporter. In 1997, she was elected chairman of the European Council Against Racism and in 1998 she became the head of the Social Democratic youth education school Bommersvik.

Sahlin returned to national politics in 1998 when then Prime Minister Göran Persson appointed her as Minister without Portfolio. She served first in the Ministry of Industry, Employment and Communication from 1998 to 2002, then from 2002 to 2004 in the Ministry of Justice as the "Minister for Democracy and Integration", and from 2004 to 2006 in the Ministry of Sustainable Development as the "Minister for Sustainable Development". In 2004, she was the Social Democratic minister for integration of refugees and her public positions indicated an opposition to proposed restrictions on asylum seekers, arguing the all refugees entering Sweden must have the same rights and obligations.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-1eOLyi7gLUC&dq=Mona+Sahlin&pg=PT118|title=Immigration Policy and the Scandinavian Welfare State 1945-2010|last1=Brochmann|first1=Grete|last2=Hagelund|first2=Anniken|date=9 May 2012|publisher=Springer|isbn=978-1-137-01516-7|language=en|access-date=15 September 2020|archive-date=30 August 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210830030228/https://books.google.com/books?id=-1eOLyi7gLUC&pg=PT118&dq=Mona+Sahlin#q=Mona%20Sahlin|url-status=live}}

After the Social Democratic defeat in the 2006 election, Göran Persson announced his retirement as party leader on the election night. Mona Sahlin was mentioned as a possible successor, but not considered to be the most likely candidate. Both Margot Wallström and Carin Jämtin received stronger support amongst local and regional party organisations. Ulrica Messing was also mentioned as a possible candidate. Wallström, Jämtin and Messing declared however that they would not stand for the post and instead supported Sahlin, leaving Mona Sahlin as the only serious candidate.{{Cite web|title= Bakgrund: Mona Sahlin kan bli socialdemokraternas partiledare|date=19 January 2007|website=svt|url= https://www.svt.se/nyheter/nyhetstecken/bakgrund-mona-sahlin-kan-bli-socialdemokraternas-partiledare|access-date=5 September 2021}} On 18 January, she was officially asked by the party's Election Committee to stand as party leader, and accepted. On 17 March, she was unanimously elected at the extra party congress in Stockholm.{{Cite web|title= Mona Sahlin är favoriten |date=25 October 2006|website=Expressen|url= https://www.expressen.se/nyheter/mona-sahlin-ar-favoriten/ |access-date=5 September 2021}}

In January 2007, support for the new centre-right government of Sweden had dropped greatly in the polls, which showed the left bloc (including the Green Party) as having much stronger support. This provided Mona Sahlin, as leader of the biggest opposition party, with excellent opportunities to lead the opposition against the PM Fredrik Reinfeldt.{{cite news |first=Henrik |last=Brors |title=Sahlin får börja på topp |url=https://www.dn.se/?a=607983 |publisher=Dagens Nyheter |date=19 January 2007 |access-date=24 January 2007 |language=sv |archive-date=1 October 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071001063333/http://www.dn.se/?a=607983 |url-status=live }} By April 2009, however, the support had waned and a Demoskop poll published in Expressen showed that the four-party Alliance claimed a combined 50 percent voter support while the Sahlin-led opposition had 45.2 percent.{{cite news|title=Alliance overtakes opposition: poll |url=http://www.thelocal.se/18674/20090404/ |publisher=The Local |date=4 April 2009 |access-date=8 May 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090410151914/http://www.thelocal.se/18674/20090404/ |archive-date=10 April 2009 }} Later the same month a Sifo poll showed that merely 27 percent of Swedes were confident or extremely confident in her leadership ability, while the public confidence in Reinfeldt was measured at 60 percent.{{cite news|title=Sahlin hit by massive crisis of confidence |url=http://www.thelocal.se/18748/20090408/ |publisher=The Local |date=9 April 2009 |access-date=8 May 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090512203003/http://www.thelocal.se/18748/20090408 |archive-date=12 May 2009 }}

File:EU-sossar.jpg

Mona Sahlin is often described as a scion of the party's more moderate members, and a number of left-wing party members criticised her candidacy for party leader. Much of this criticism was silenced in January 2007 when the chairman of the Trade Union Confederation, Wanja Lundby-Wedin, expressed full support for Sahlin{{cite news|title=LO-basen stöder Mona Sahlin |url=https://www.dn.se/?a=603838 |publisher=Dagens Nyheter |date=9 January 2007 |access-date=10 January 2007 |language=sv |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071001092125/http://www.dn.se/?a=603838 |archive-date=1 October 2007 }} as well as several powerful party districts around the country.{{cite news |title=Växande stöd för Sahlin |url=https://www.dn.se/?a=604145 |publisher=Dagens Nyheter |date=10 January 2007 |access-date=10 January 2007 |language=sv |archive-date=30 September 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930225906/http://www.dn.se/?a=604145 |url-status=live }}{{cite news |first=Annika |last=Hamrud |title=Göteborg vill ha Sahlin som s-ledare |url=https://www.dn.se/?a=602998 |publisher=Dagens Nyheter |date=6 January 2007 |access-date=10 January 2007 |language=sv |archive-date=1 October 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071001000516/http://www.dn.se/?a=602998 |url-status=live }} One of her key initiatives was the formation of the Red-Green alliance between the Social Democrats and the Green Party to counter the move to pare back the social welfare system and privatize state-owned assets.{{Cite book|title=Political Handbook of the World 2012|last=Muller|first=Tom|publisher=SAGE|year=2012|isbn=978-1-60871-995-2|location=Thousand Oaks, CA|pages=[https://archive.org/details/politicalhandboo0000unse_a2s3/page/1388 1388]|url=https://archive.org/details/politicalhandboo0000unse_a2s3/page/1388}}

In the election to the European Parliament held on 7 June 2009 – Sahlin's first election as party leader – the Social Democratic Party received 24.41 percent of the votes (a slight reduction from the 2004 election in which the party received 24.56 percent). The result was the lowest for the Social Democratic Party since the introduction of universal suffrage in Sweden in 1921.{{cite news |date=12 June 2009 |title='Framgången' var sämsta valresultatet någonsin |trans-title="The success" was worst election result ever |url=http://www.svd.se/opinion/ledarsidan/artikel_3050533.svd |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090615091815/http://www.svd.se/opinion/ledarsidan/artikel_3050533.svd |archive-date=15 June 2009 |access-date=16 June 2009 |publisher=Svenska Dagbladet |language=sv}} In a speech before trade unionists during the election campaign on 12 May 2009, Sahlin said: "If there's not a plus in front of our figures it's a deep failure".{{cite news|title=S medger inte dåligt resultat |url=http://svt.se/2.109698/1.1586978/s_medger_inte_daligt_resultat |publisher=Tidningarnas Telegrambyrå |date=8 June 2009 |access-date=16 June 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090803005353/http://svt.se/2.109698/1.1586978/s_medger_inte_daligt_resultat |archive-date=3 August 2009 }}

She led the Social Democratic Party in the election of September 2010 where she failed to unseat Fredrik Reinfeldt as Prime Minister. The Social Democrats received the lowest recorded percentage of the votes in their history but were still the largest party in Sweden by a slim margin in 2010.{{cite news | url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-11367657 | work=BBC News | title=In quotes: Swedish election | date=20 September 2010 | access-date=20 June 2018 | archive-date=27 November 2018 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181127051506/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-11367657 | url-status=live }} She resigned as party leader on 25 March 2011, becoming the second Social Democratic Party leader to have resigned without having served as prime minister.{{Cite book|title=Nordic, Central and Southeastern Europe 2012, 12th edition|last=Thompson|first=Wayne C.|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|year=2012|isbn=978-1-61048-891-4|location=Lanham, MD|pages=29}}

Speaking in 2005 at a Swedish mosque, Sahlin said that "many Swedes are envious of immigrants because they have a culture, a history, something that binds them together. Swedes have only Midsummer Night and such silly things." Karen Jespersen, a former Minister of Integration in Denmark, commented: Cultural self-denial cannot easily be more monstrous and ghastly."{{Cite web|title=Svensk kultur en saga blott?|website=Human Rights Service|date= April 22, 2005|url=https://www.rights.no/hrs_skrib_gen/arkiv/hrs_65.60_0504.22_106.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304214600/http://www.rights.no/hrs_skrib_gen/arkiv/hrs_65.60_0504.22_106.htm |archive-date=2016-03-04 }} After the terrorist action in Brussels in March 2016, Sahlin, who was then serving as national coordinator against violent extremism, maintained in an op-ed that such atrocities were the fault not only of the terrorists themselves but of critics of Islam whose remarks in online chat rooms, in comments fields, and on social media "give the extremists their nourishment."{{Cite web|last=Sahlin |first=Mona|title= "Sverige befinner sig på ett sluttande plan"|website=Dagens Samhälle|date=22 March 2016|url=https://www.dagenssamhalle.se/debatt/sverige-befinner-sig-pa-ett-sluttande-plan-23711|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180127143306/https://www.dagenssamhalle.se/debatt/sverige-befinner-sig-pa-ett-sluttande-plan-23711 |archive-date=27 January 2018 }} Commentator Jenny Sonesson called for her to be dismissed from her position, saying that she "knows nothing about Islam." Writing in Expressen, Sakine Madon also criticized Sahlin for her refusal to address the reality of jihadism.{{Cite web|url= https://omni.se/sakine-madon-sluta-fega-i-kampen-mot-jihadismen/a/e5317c69-8540-4424-a283-d22568b9ac8f|website=Omni|access-date=5 September 2021|title= Sakine Madon: "Sluta fega i kampen mot jihadismen"|date=27 November 2015 }}

On 5 May 2016, Sahlin stepped down from her position as Sweden's national coordinator against violence-embracing extremism, due to revelations by the newspaper Expressen that she had lied about her bodyguard's salary, in order to help him secure a mortgage. The bodyguard had a monthly salary of {{Currency|43000|SEK2|linked=no}}, but Mona Sahlin wrote a confirmation letter stating that he had a salary of {{Currency|120000|SEK2|linked=no}}. When confronted with the issue, she first made a false statement that she had paid the difference out of her own pocket, before retracting the statement after it was proven by Expressen to actually be false. The media mentioned similarities to the so-called Toblerone case of the 1990s when Sahlin was caught using her government credit card to pay for private expenses and then dodging the issue when confronted.{{Cite web|url=http://www.expressen.se/nyheter/mona-sahlin-avgar-efter-avslojandet/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160505060706/http://www.expressen.se/nyheter/mona-sahlin-avgar-efter-avslojandet/ |archive-date=5 May 2016 |website=Expressen|title=Mona Sahlin avgår efter avslöjandet|date= 4 May 2016}}{{in lang|sv}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.expressen.se/kronikorer/britta-svensson/affaren-visar-att-hon-inte-lart-sig-ett-dugg/|title=Affären visar att hon inte lärt sig ett dugg|website=www.expressen.se|date=5 May 2016 |access-date=20 October 2019|archive-date=20 October 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191020225114/https://www.expressen.se/kronikorer/britta-svensson/affaren-visar-att-hon-inte-lart-sig-ett-dugg/|url-status=live}}

In November 2017, Sahlin was found guilty of tax evasion. In 2015, she had failed to declare 151,072 kronor in income from writing and lecturing, and in 2016 she had failed to declare {{Currency|106193|SEK2|linked=no}}. She was required to pay a fine of {{Currency|23000|SEK2|linked=no}}.{{Cite web|title=Mona Sahlin straffas för skattebrott|website= SVT Nyheter|date= 24 November 2017|url=https://www.svt.se/nyheter/inrikes/mona-sahlin-straffas-for-skattebrott|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180127143313/https://www.svt.se/nyheter/inrikes/mona-sahlin-straffas-for-skattebrott |archive-date=27 January 2018 }}

File:Bo Sahlin in Jan 2014.jpg

Mona Sahlin has one brother and two sisters. Her brother, Janne Andersson, is the former lead singer of the pop group Japop and owns his own production company.{{Cite web|title= En fråga till Mona Sahlin|url= https://www.hakanpettersson.se/blogg.php?id=209|website= hakanpettersson |date=18 January 2007|access-date=5 September 2021}} Her sister Lena Ridemar is the chief of staff at the Tenants' Association.

In 1982, she married Bo Sahlin, a politician who later became the CEO of the Social Democratic media company AiP Media Produktion AB in 2006.{{Cite web|title= Bo Sahlin|url= https://www.resume.se/alla-nyheter/nyheter/bo-sahlin/|website=Resume| date=17 March 2011|access-date=5 September 2021}} The couple have three children: Jenny (born 1983), Gustav (born 1989), and Johan who died after ten months as a result of heart failure.{{Cite web|title= Mona Sahlins barn har vuxit upp – det gör de i dag|website=Femina|url= https://www.femina.se/i-rampljuset/mona-sahlins-barn-har-vuxit-upp--det-gor-de-i-dag/7256823|access-date=5 September 2021|date=4 February 2021}}{{Cite web|title= Så ser Mona Sahlins barn Ann-Sofie, Jenny och Gustav ut idag |website=Hant|url= https://www.hant.se/noje/sa-ser-mona-sahlins-barn-ann-sofie-jenny-och-gustav-ut-idag/5298752 |access-date=5 September 2021|date=23 June 2020}} She also has a child named Ann-Sofie from a previous relationship with a man named David Peña.{{Cite web|title= Det var Mona Sahlins dotter som Hunter Biden stämplade som rasist |website=Friatrider|url= https://www.friatider.se/det-var-mona-sahlins-dotter-som-hunter-biden-anklagade-rasism |access-date=5 September 2021|date=26 February 2021}}{{Better source needed|reason=Fria Tider is unreliable|date=September 2024}}

• {{cite book|last=Sahlin|first=Mona|title=Med mina ord|year=1996|publisher=Rabén Prisma|location=Stockholm|isbn=91-518-3006-X}}

{{reflist}}

{{wikiquote}}

{{commons category|Mona Sahlin}}

• [http://www.riksdagen.se/webbnav/index.aspx?nid=1111&iid=0806338394516 Mona Sahlin's page on the Swedish Parliament's web site]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20130906012403/http://www.thelocal.se/6136/20070118 Profile: Mona Sahlin] in The Local
• [http://www.expressen.se/kronikorer/brittasvensson/1.511241/britta-svensson-nej-det-handlade-inte-bara-om-toblerone... Article in Expressen about Mona's past] in Expressen

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Category:20th-century Swedish women politicians

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Category:1957 births

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