The S-top about when she locked in Löfven: "Stefan was almost terrified"

He was the involuntary prime minister.

When Stefan Löfven was elected new party leader, the Social Democrats were a party in crisis.

The tours around Mona Sahlin and Håkan Juholt were an open wound - now they needed to quickly find a new chairman who could unite the party.

In the season premiere of SVT's political agency, EU parliamentarian Heléne Fritzon - who then sat on the Social Democrats' executive committee - tells how it went when she and Sven-Erik Österberg were given the task of explaining to Stefan Löfven that he must accept the job.

"Was almost terrified before the mission"

The trio locked themselves in a small and inconspicuous room in the Riksdag where they sat on three hard chairs with no table between them.

Then began the discussion - or persuasion if you will.

- Stefan was very taken, almost terrified before the assignment.

He slid further and further down on the chair, he actually almost reached the floor, says Heléne Fritzon in Politikbyrån and continues:

- But I have such a beautiful picture when he gets up and accepts the assignment.

Because then I see that there rises our next party chairman, ready for the task of leading both the Social Democrats and to run for prime minister.

You must have blocked the exit so he could not escape?

- Haha ... a lot has been said about that meeting, but it is clear that there will be a very high pressure when you are in such a sharp situation as we did.

Of course, the most pressure is on the person who gets the sharp question.

Anyone who is not caught and terrified by that task but who immediately raises his hand and says "I want to be prime minister", that person should probably not have the job.

- My picture is that we needed to push Stefan and that he needed this trip.

But I would say that the advice that mattered most was the one he received from his Ulla (Löfven, editor's note).

"A prime minister who has really been tried"

When Stefan Löfven now resigns, he has been party leader for almost ten years and prime minister for seven.

Heléne Fritzon sums up the years:

- He is a prime minister who has really been tried.

He has dealt with everything from the refugee crisis, terrorist attacks and the pandemic we are still in.