Deputy Prime Minister of Sweden

Deputy to the Prime Minister of Sweden Statsministerns ställföreträdare
Lesser coat of arms of Sweden
Incumbent Margot Wallström (acting) Åsa Romson (honorary title) since 3 October 2014
Appointer	The Prime Minister
Term length	No fixed term, Serves at the pleasure of the Prime Minister
Inaugural holder	Gunnar Sträng
Formation	January 1, 1975
Website	www.sweden.gov.se

The Swedish constitution allows the Prime Minister to appoint one of the Ministers in the cabinet as Deputy Prime Minister (statsministers ställföreträdare, sometimes unofficially known as vice statsminister), in case the Prime Minister for some reason is prevented from performing his or her duties. However, if a Deputy Prime Minister has not been appointed, the Minister in the cabinet who has served the longest time (and if there are several with equal experience the one who is oldest) takes over as head of government (these are marked in italic in the table below).

A Deputy Prime Minister can only serve as Prime Minister in a temporary function, as the resignation of a Prime Minister automatically includes the entire cabinet, and the Instrument of Government of Sweden requires the Speaker of the Riksdag to dismiss the cabinet in the case of the death of the Prime Minister.

History

Origins of the office

Historically, under the 1809 Instrument of Government the Minister for Foreign Affairs (the "second excellency" and to date the only formal "minister" save for the Prime Minister, the other cabinet members' formal title being Councillor of State for... etc) was to function as acting Prime Minister should the Prime Minister not be able not to perform his duties. With the enactment of the 1974 Instrument of Government and the inauguration of Thorbjörn Fälldin's three-party cabinet in 1976, Per Ahlmark was formally sworn in as the first to hold the office of Deputy Prime Minister.

Palme assassination

In 1986 Deputy Prime Minister Ingvar Carlsson became acting Prime Minister for the transitional cabinet from March 1 to March 12, upon the assassination of Olof Palme, the only time the death of the Prime Minister has caused the Deputy Prime Minister to temporarily assume the office. Carlsson subsequently received the task of forming a new cabinet from the Speaker of the Riksdag. The cabinet was approved by the Riksdag on March 12, 1986, effectively reappointing most cabinet members in their previous offices.

Role in coalition governments

The role and position of a Deputy Prime Minister may vary. In the five last coalition cabinets, Fälldin III, Bildt and Reinfeldt I and II, and Löfven, the Deputy Prime Minister was the head of the second-largest coalition partner (Liberals in Fälldin III, Bildt and Reinfeldt II, Centre in Reinfeldt I, Green in Löfven). In the governments Fälldin I and II, however, the Deputy Prime Ministership belonged to the Liberal Party despite the fact that it was the smallest of the three members. The reason for this might be ascribed to an unwillingness on behalf of the Centre and Liberals to give this position to the Moderates, due to ideological differences. In all of these governments, however, the Deputy Prime Minister also had a regular Cabinet portfolio.

In July 2015, the office of the Deputy Prime Minister was the subject of some political debate. Following a brief illness of the social democratic Prime Minister, Stefan Löfven, the Prime Minister's office revealed that the Deputy Prime Minister Åsa Romson of the Green Party, although named Vice statsminister ("Vice Prime Minister") when the cabinet took office in October 2014, was in fact not expected to temporarily assume the duties of the Prime Minister as Statsministerns ställföreträdare ("Deputy of the Prime Minister") as stated in the Instrument of Government, instead yielding to the most senior minister of the cabinet. Effectively this makes social democratic Foreign Minister Margot Wallström the actual deputy of the Prime Minister, due to seniority rather than appointment. It also rendered the title of Vice statsminister an honorary title, for the most senior member of the party functioning as junior partner in the governing coalition, rather than an actual function.

Role in one-party governments

The situation is different in the one-party governments that have existed since the position of Deputy Prime Minister was introduced in 1976, namely the Liberal Ullsten government and the Social Democratic governments Palme II, Carlsson I-III and Persson. While Mona Sahlin might well have been described as something of a "successor-in-waiting" (even if she ultimately did not succeed Ingvar Carlsson to the Prime Ministership), the other Deputy Prime Ministers have tended to be older and experienced politicians who have often been in charge of coordinating the work of the Government and may also have been in charge of some policy areas of their own which were not substantial enough to warrant a full-time Cabinet position, such as Bo Ringholm, who was Minister of Sport concurrently with being Deputy Prime Minister.

List of officeholders

Color key

  Independent     Social Democratic     Moderate     Centre     Left     Liberals     Christian Democrats     Green     Sweden Democrats  

№	Deputy Prime Minister		Position	Took office	Left office	Duration	Party	Prime Minister
1	Per Ahlmark	Per Ahlmark (born 1939)	Minister for Employment	October 8, 1976	March 7, 1978		Liberal People's	Thorbjörn Fälldin (C)
2		Ola Ullsten (born 1931)	Minister for International Development Cooperation	March 7, 1978	October 18, 1978		Liberal People's	Thorbjörn Fälldin (C)
–	Sven Romanus	Sven Romanus (Acting) (1906–2005)	Minister for Justice	October 18, 1978	October 12, 1979		Independent	Ola Ullsten (FP)
–	Ingemar Mundebo	Ingemar Mundebo (Acting) (born 1930)	Minister for Justice	October 12, 1979	August 1, 1980		Liberal People's	Thorbjörn Fälldin (C)
(2)		Ola Ullsten (born 1931)	Minister for Foreign Affairs	August 1, 1980	October 8, 1982		Liberal People's	Thorbjörn Fälldin (C)
3		Ingvar Carlsson (born 1934)	Minister for the Environment	October 8, 1982	February 28, 1986		Social Democratic	Olof Palme (S)
–	Svante Lundkvist	Svante Lundkvist (Acting) (1919–1991)	Minister for Agriculture	February 28, 1986	October 9, 1986		Social Democratic	Ingvar Carlsson (S)
–	Kjell-Olof Feldt	Kjell-Olof Feldt (Acting) (born 1931)	Minister for Finance	October 9, 1986	February 16, 1990		Social Democratic	Ingvar Carlsson (S)
–	Lena Hjelm-Wallén	Lena Hjelm-Wallén (Acting) (born 1943)	Minister for International Development Cooperation	February 16, 1990	February 27, 1990		Social Democratic	Ingvar Carlsson (S)
4	Odd Engström	Odd Engström (1941–1998)	–	February 27, 1990	October 4, 1991		Social Democratic	Ingvar Carlsson (S)
5		Bengt Westerberg (born 1943)	Minister for Health and Social Affairs	October 4, 1991	October 7, 1994		Liberal People's	Carl Bildt (M)
6		Mona Sahlin (born 1957)	Minister for Gender Equality	October 7, 1994	November 16, 1995		Social Democratic	Ingvar Carlsson (S)
7	Lena Hjelm-Wallén	Lena Hjelm-Wallén (born 1943)	Minister for Foreign Affairs (1994–1998)	November 16, 1995	October 21, 2002		Social Democratic	Ingvar Carlsson (S) (1995 – 1996) Göran Persson (S) (1996 – 2002)
8	Margareta Winberg	Margareta Winberg (born 1943)	Minister for Gender Equality	October 21, 2002	October 31, 2003		Social Democratic	Göran Persson (S)
–	Marita Ulvskog	Marita Ulvskog (Acting) (born 1951)	Minister for Culture and Sports	October 31, 2003	June 1, 2004		Social Democratic	Göran Persson (S)
9	Lars Engqvist	Lars Engqvist (born 1945)	Minister for Health and Social Affairs	June 1, 2004	October 1, 2004		Social Democratic	Göran Persson (S)
–	Laila Freivalds	Laila Freivalds (Acting) (born 1942)	Minister for Foreign Affairs	October 1, 2004	November 1, 2004		Social Democratic	Göran Persson (S)
10		Bosse Ringholm (born 1942)	Minister for European Union Affairs	November 1, 2004	October 6, 2006		Social Democratic	Göran Persson (S)
11		Maud Olofsson (born 1955)	Minister for Enterprise and Energy	October 6, 2006	October 5, 2010		Centre	Fredrik Reinfeldt (M)
12		Jan Björklund (born 1962)	Minister for Education	October 5, 2010	October 3, 2014		Liberal People's	Fredrik Reinfeldt (M)
13		Margot Wallström (Acting) (born 1954)	Minister for Foreign Affairs	October 3, 2014	Incumbent		Social Democratic	Stefan Löfven (S)
-		Åsa Romson (born 1972)	Minister for the Environment	October 3, 2014			Green	Stefan Löfven (S)

External links

• www.sweden.gov.se