Margot Wallström facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Margot Wallström
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Wallström in 2023
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| Deputy Prime Minister of Sweden | |
| In office 3 October 2014 – 10 September 2019 |
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| Monarch | Carl XVI Gustaf |
| Prime Minister | Stefan Löfven |
| Preceded by | Jan Björklund |
| Succeeded by | Morgan Johansson |
| Minister for Foreign Affairs | |
| In office 3 October 2014 – 10 September 2019 |
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| Prime Minister | Stefan Löfven |
| Preceded by | Carl Bildt |
| Succeeded by | Ann Linde |
| Minister for Nordic Cooperation | |
| In office 25 May 2016 – 21 January 2019 |
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| Prime Minister | Stefan Löfven |
| Preceded by | Kristina Persson |
| Succeeded by | Ann Linde |
| United Nations Special Representative on ... in Conflict | |
| In office April 2010 – 22 June 2012 |
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| Secretary General | Ban Ki-moon |
| Preceded by | Office established |
| Succeeded by | Zainab Bangura |
| First Vice-President of the European Commission | |
| In office 22 November 2004 – 9 February 2010 |
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| President | José Manuel Barroso |
| Preceded by | Position established |
| Succeeded by | Catherine Ashton |
| European Commissioner for Institutional Relations and Communication Strategy | |
| In office 22 November 2004 – 9 February 2010 |
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| President | José Manuel Barroso |
| Preceded by | Position established |
| Succeeded by | Maroš Šefčovič (Inter-Institutional Relations and Administration) |
| European Commissioner for the Environment | |
| In office 13 September 1999 – 11 November 2004 |
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| President | Romano Prodi |
| Preceded by | Ritt Bjerregaard |
| Succeeded by | Stavros Dimas |
| Minister for Consumer Affairs | |
| In office 4 October 1988 – 4 October 1991 |
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| Prime Minister | Ingvar Carlsson |
| Preceded by | Bengt K. Å. Johansson |
| Succeeded by | Inger Davidson |
| Member of the Riksdag | |
| In office 19 September 1982 – 11 September 1999 |
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| Constituency | Värmland |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
Margot Elisabeth Wallström
28 September 1954 Kåge, Sweden |
| Political party | Social Democrats |
| Spouse |
Håkan Olsson
(m. 1984) |
| Children | 2 |
| Signature |  |
Margot Elisabeth Wallström (Swedish pronunciation: [ˈmǎrːɡɔt ˈvâlːstrœm]; born 28 September 1954) is a Swedish politician of the Swedish Social Democratic Party who served as Deputy Prime Minister of Sweden and Minister for Foreign Affairs from 2014 to 2019 and Minister for Nordic Cooperation from 2016 to 2019.
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Early life and career
Born in Skellefteå, Wallström is a high school graduate without academic degrees. In 1973, she started her career as a banking clerk at the Alfa Savings bank in Karlstad. She worked there from 1977 to 1979, and briefly as an accountant from 1986 to 1987. Wallström was the CEO of a regional TV network in Värmland, Sweden from 1993 to 1994. Before taking up her appointment as EU Commissioner she was executive vice-president of Worldview Global Media in Colombo, Sri Lanka.
Political career
Wallström has had a long career in politics in the Swedish parliament, the Swedish government, and the European Commission. At 25, she was elected to parliament. She was Environment Commissioner from 1999 to 2004, and in the Swedish government she was Minister for Consumer Affairs, Women and Youth from 1988 to 1991, Minister for Culture from 1994 to 1996, and Minister for Social Affairs from 1996 to 1998.
European Commissioner for the Environment, 1999–2004
During her time in office, Wallström pushed the European Commission's initial proposal for REACH, a regulation requiring manufacturers of industrial chemicals to test and register their products with the European Chemicals Agency before they can be used. In 2004, she approved the importation of a genetically modified corn from the United States for animal feed after a six-year moratorium, arguing in a statement that the corn produced by biotechnology company Monsanto, known as NK603 maize, had been rigorously tested and was considered "as safe as any conventional maize".
First Vice-President of the European Commission, 2004–2010
In 2004, Wallström became the first member of the European Commission to operate a blog. The comments section of her site quickly became a hotspot for arguments concerning the policies of the European Union. After the rejection of the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe by French and Dutch voters, Wallström pushed forward her "plan D" (for democracy, dialogue and debate) to reconnect Citizens with the Union. Her work on such platforms, including the backing of the oneseat.eu petition, has given her a good reputation in some quarters, even being dubbed "the Citizens Commissioner" – but has earned her names like "the Propaganda Commissioner" as well from political opponents. The Economist listed her among the least effective commissioners in 2009.
In 2006, Wallström presented her a plan to transform the EU's Europe by Satellite (EbS) video-broadcast service into an EU news agency; the plan was scrapped after press organizations complained that it would undermine the work of reporters covering the EU. Following Sweden's 2006 election, in which the Social Democratic Party lost power, former Prime Minister Göran Persson announced his withdrawal from politics in March 2007. Wallström was regarded as the favourite candidate to succeed Persson as Social Democratic party leader, but made clear that she did not wish to be considered for the position. The post instead went to Mona Sahlin.
Between 2006 and 2007, Wallström served as member of the Amato Group, a group of high-level European politicians unofficially working on rewriting the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe into what became known as the Treaty of Lisbon following its rejection by French and Dutch voters. Immediately after the election of Mona Sahlin as party leader, Wallström accepted a membership in a group working to develop political strategies for the upcoming election to the European Parliament in 2009. The membership in this group was considered by Swedish liberal Carl B Hamilton (and later also Fredrik Reinfeldt) to constitute a breach of the oath every member of the European Commission gives, which states that any member of the commission should work for the community's best interest with no influence from politicians. European Commission spokespeople Mikolaj Dowgielewicz and Pia Ahrenkilde-Hansen stated that her new assignment was not in conflict with her commissioner position.
In December 2006, Wallström was voted the most popular woman in Sweden, beating royals and athletes in a survey carried out by ICA-kuriren and Sifo. In the previous year she had attained second place. Wallström was modest in response stating that "it might be because I'm so far away". On 16 November 2007, Margot Wallström, became Chair of the Council of Women World Leaders Ministerial Initiative. This position was previously held by former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright.
Minister of Foreign Affairs of Sweden, 2014–2019
On 3 October 2014, when the Social Democratic leader Stefan Löfven became Prime Minister, Wallström was appointed to the Swedish government as Minister of Foreign Affairs. On 30 October 2014, Wallström became the first EU foreign minister to recognise the State of Palestine, with a view to "facilitate a peace agreement by making the parties less unequal"; as a result, Israel the same day recalled its ambassador for consultations. Although a visit by Wallström to Israel had been planned for January 2015, Israel's foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman and prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu declined to receive her. Wallström's diplomatic immunity status in Israel was also revoked which meant that if she visited Israel she would do as an individual rather than an official of a foreign state, which would normally mean enjoying protection by security services. In a March 2018 interview, she stated that the intent behind the recognition was to speed up the process towards a Two-state solution but also admitted that no progress on that issue had been made.
In December 2014, Wallström called in the Russian ambassador to Sweden, Victor Ivanovitj Tatarintsev, over the behaviour of a Russian military jet which Swedish authorities said had caused an SAS flight from Copenhagen to Poznań, Poland, to change course off southern Sweden; the incident inflamed sensitivities over Russian flights in the Nordic region, driven in part by tensions over separatism in eastern Ukraine. On 11 September 2015, she again summoned Russia's ambassador to explain comments from the Russian foreign ministry warning of "consequences" if Sweden joins NATO.
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In January 2015, Wallström tweeted criticism of Saudi Arabia's flogging of human rights activist blogger Raif Badawi, calling it a "cruel attempt to silence modern forms of expression". In May 2015, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon appointed Wallström as member of the High-Level Panel on Humanitarian Financing, an initiative aimed at preparing recommendations for the 2016 World Humanitarian Summit. One of Wallström's main foreign policy goals was to secure one of the non-permanent seats for Sweden on the UN Security Council in the 2016 elections. This was achieved on 28 June 2016.
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In February 2018, Wallström cancelled her visit to Turkey that was due in two weeks to protest the Turkish invasion of northern Syria aimed at ousting U.S.-backed Syrian Kurds from the enclave of Afrin. In December 2018, Wallström met with Iranian deputy foreign minister Abbas Araghchi in her office, a meeting which was unannounced by the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs.
Political positions
Wallström "promised a 'feminist' foreign policy when her Social Democrats formed the coalition government" in October 2014. She has criticized the lack of women's rights in Saudi Arabia. On 10 March 2015 Sweden announced it would revoke a weapons export agreement with Saudi Arabia that had been in place since 2005. Saudi Arabia retaliated by stopping visa issues for Swedish businesspeople, boycotting Wallström's speech from the Arab League, temporarily withdrawing their ambassador from Sweden, and refusing to accept four Amazonian monkeys from a Swedish zoo.
King Carl XVI Gustaf then offered to mediate with the Saudi king, and a fellow Social Democrat member of the government, Björn von Sydow, travelled to meet King Salman bin Abdul Aziz and Prince Mohammad bin Salman Al Saud, taking him private letters from the Swedish King and from Prime Minister Stefan Löfven. These have remained classified, but in a press conference on 28 March, Wallström said: "I am very pleased to announce that we can normalize our relations immediately, and that we are able to welcome the Saudi ambassador back to Sweden. It is deeply satisfying that we have been able to clear the misunderstanding that we insulted the world religion Islam."
Wallström has called for more articles on Wikipedia about women related topics.
Other activities
Corporate boards
- Edberg Dialog, Member of the Board
- Ica Gruppen, Member of the Board of Directors (2013–2014)
Non-profit organizations
- Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue (HD), Member of the Board (since 2020)
- Centre for Feminist Foreign Policy (CFFP), Member of the Advisory Board
- European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR), Member
- International Crisis Group, Member of the Board of Trustees
- International Gender Champions (IGC), Member
- Institute for Human Rights & Business (IHRB), Chair of the International Advisory Council
- Mary Robinson Foundation – Climate Justice (MRFCJ), Member of the International Advisory Council
- Svenska PostkodStiftelsen, Member of the Board of Directors
- Enough Project, Fellow
- Global Challenge Foundation, Member of the Board (2013–2014)
- Institute for Human Rights and Business, Advisor (2012-2014), Chair (2020-present)
- International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA), Member of the Advisory Board (2011–2014)
- Lund University, Chairwoman of the University Board (2012–2014)
Recognition
- 2001 – Honorary doctor at Chalmers University, Sweden
- 2002 – European Commissioner of the Year (by European Voice)
- 2004 – Honorary doctor at Mälardalen University, Sweden
- 2004 – IAIA Global Environmental Award
- 2005 – Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters Degree, University of Massachusetts Lowell, Lowell
- 2008 – Göteborg Award for Sustainable Development (jointly with Theo Colborn, Jan Ahlbom and Ulf Duus
- 2009 – Monismanien Prize for Freedom of Speech
- 2016 – Grand Star of the Order of Jerusalem, State of Palestine
Personal life
Wallström has been married to her husband, Håkan, since 1984. She has two sons. She lives in Stockholm and Värmland.
See also
In Spanish: Margot Wallström para niños
- List of foreign ministers in 2017
- List of current foreign ministers
