Stefan Löfven

Prime Minister of Sweden

Kjell Stefan Löfvén 21 July 1957 Stockholm, Sweden

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Incumbent

Prime Minister of Sweden since 2014 Kjell Stefan Löfven (Swedish pronunciation:  ; officially Löfvén; born 21 July 1957) is a Swedish politician serving as the prime minister of Sweden since 2014 and leader of the Swedish Social Democratic Party since 2012. After leaving school and completing his compulsory military service in the Air Force, Löfven was trained in welding and subsequently began a career as an active trade unionist. He rose to be elected as an ombudsman within the Swedish Metalworkers' Union (SMU) and was eventually elected as the first Chairman of IF Metall in January 2006, a major new trade union formed from a number of smaller unions, including the SMU, voting to merge. After the resignation of Håkan Juholt, in January 2012, Löfven was unanimously selected by the executive board of the Social Democratic Party to replace him as the party's new leader. This also made Löfven the Leader of the Opposition, despite the fact that he did not have a seat in the Riksdag at the time. Löfven led the Social Democrats into the 2014 election. Despite initial opinion poll leads, the party only gained a single seat, but due to the poor performance of the governing Moderate Party, who lost 23 seats, Löfven was able to form a minority coalition government with the Green Party. He was appointed Prime Minister of Sweden on 3 October 2014. He secured a second term in the aftermath of the inconclusive 2018 election, which saw both main parties suffer losses; after a months-long impasse that set a new record for government formation, Löfven was able to secure abstentions from MPs belonging to the Centre Party, the Left Party and the Liberals, and was re-elected by the Riksdag in January 2019. On 21 June 2021, after the Left Party withdrew their support of the government, Löfven lost a confidence motion in the Riksdag, triggering the 2021 Swedish government crisis. Days later, on 5 July, Löfven announced that talks to form a new government had been successful; and on 7 July the Riksdag once again confirmed Löfven as Prime Minister. Dubbed a "political escape artist" and the "Harry Houdini of European politics", Löfven has successfully stayed on as Prime Minister at the helm of historically weak coalition governments in a turbulent political landscape since 2014.