- According to secure sources, Ann Linde (S) becomes Sweden's next foreign minister. Definitive message is expected to come from Prime Minister Stefan Löfven tomorrow Tuesday, says Mats Knutson.
Why does Ann Linde get the job?
- She has long and solid experience in the field of foreign policy and has had international assignments for the Social Democrats in both Sweden and the EU. She has also been EU minister and now foreign trade minister. In addition, it would have been problematic for the government to replace a woman (Margot Wallström) with a man and still claim to be pursuing a feminist foreign policy.
How will it be felt in foreign policy that the Foreign Ministry has a new boss?
- Not very much. Sweden's foreign policy is relatively firm; there is hardly any difference if the government is social democratic or bourgeois. What one would expect is that there will be some difference in messages and speeches - perhaps with more emphasis on the EU. Nor are there likely to be as many controversial statements about other Ann Linde countries as Margot Wallström did.