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| About Anna Lindh |
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Sweden’s Minister for Foreign Affairs Anna Lindh fell victim to an act of inexplicable violence when she was in a department store in Stockholm, surrounded by people. Her death was at tragic odds with the goals she believed in and fought for an open society where people need not fear moving around in public places, where everybody can express their opinions and be treated with respect, regardless of their ethnic origin, gender and religion. Anna Lindh was born on June 19, 1957, in Stockholm. She was the eldest child of Staffan, an artist, and Nancy, a junior school teacher. Anna and her younger sister Sara grew up just outside the town of Enköping in a home that encouraged dialogue and was well known for its tolerant atmosphere. Anna Lindh first became involved in politics at the age of twelve, when she joined a small local branch of the Swedish Social Democratic Youth League in Trögd. This was in 1969, the same year that Olof Palme became the leader of the Social Democratic Party and Swedish Prime Minister. Olof Palme’s commitment to international affairs caught Anna Lindh’s attention. The great issue of the time was the protest movement against the war in Vietnam, and she worked hard to make the people of Enköping aware of what was going on there. Anna Lindh’s political career had only just begun. The Swedish Social Democratic Party needed an injection of youth. Anna Lindh’s name was put forward, and in 1976 the party adopted her as a candidate in the elections to the Swedish Parliament (the Riksdag). However, the Social Democrats lost the election and were forced to leave government after nearly forty years in power. For 19-year-old Anna Lindh, the defeat resulted in a place in Enköping municipal council, instead of a seat in the Riksdag. Anna Lindh studied law at the universities of Uppsala and Stockholm and later completed a qualifying period of service at district court level. In 1982, the year of her graduation,, the Swedish Social Democratic Party won the election and Olof Palme returned to power. Anna Lindh was one of several young women who entered the Riksdag that year. Another was her friend Mona Sahlin. Margot Wallström had won a seat three years earlier. The three of them kept in close touch over the years and supported one another in their endeavours to combine a political career with family life. Like Anna Lindh, Mona Sahlin and Margot Wallström have held various ministerial portfolios, and Margot Wallström later became an EU Commissioner. But it would still be a few years before they joined the political elite. When the Swedish Social Democratic Youth League was to elect a new chair in 1984, Anna Lindh was the name that united the organisation after a series of divisive struggles that had gone on since the 1970s. She had not taken sides in these conflicts, attempting instead to mediate between those who were most uncompromising. She was elected the first woman to chair the Swedish Social Democratic Youth League and her six years as chair put an end to the pattern of male dominance. During this time she put environmental issues on the agenda and her commitment to international affairs brought her many contacts with people she would later meet in her role as foreign minister. In 1991 Anna Lindh was elected to the innermost circle of the Swedish Social Democratic Party, the Executive Committee. Culture, in terms of theatre, art and music, was a natural dimension of Anna Lindh’s home environment in her childhood and youth. When the Social Democrats were again in opposition in 1991, she had the opportunity to bring her cultural interest to the fore of her work. She became Stockholm City Commissioner for Culture and Leisure, and was also appointed Chair of Stockholm City Theatre. Apart from this, she followed the repertoire of the Swedish Folk Opera in Stockholm, and from the start she never missed a single new production there. For Prime Minister Ingvar Carlsson, Anna Lindh was an obvious choice as a minister in the government he formed after winning the election in 1994, a government that had an equal number of women and men in the cabinet. She was appointed Minister for the Environment. Due to an initial crisis in central government finances, she was forced to cut back on environmental initiatives and instead concentrated on tougher environmental legislation. Along with Danish Environment Minister Svend Auken and others, she pushed for a European environmental programme. She also took on chief responsibility for implementing, in the Baltic Sea region, the Agenda 21 action programme that contained objectives and guidelines from the 1992 UN environment summit in Rio de Janeiro. After the 1998 parliamentary elections, Göran Persson was able to continue as Prime Minister. He made Anna Lindh Minister for Foreign Affairs in his new government. This gave her responsibility for Sweden’s foreign and security policy, human rights and the rights and interests of Swedish citizens abroad. Olof Palme remained a guiding light for Anna Lindh, though she was well aware that conditions in the world had changed since his death in 1986. Human rights occupied a central place in all that she did: all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. Anna Lindh was keen to see a strong United Nations, and she wanted the EU to conduct a common foreign policy to avoid impending conflicts. Her line was that international work should build on action to prevent conflict. Anna Lindh’s first major assignment as Minister for Foreign Affairs was to address the conflict between the Kosovo liberation army and Serbian armed forces. Major new crises followed: the terror attack against the World Trade Center in New York, the US bombing campaign in Afghanistan, the war in Iraq. When the war against Iraq was launched in March 2003, Anna Lindh declared that “a war waged without the support of the UN Charter is a great setback". Over the years, Anna Lindh became an enthusiastic advocate of the EU. She played a prominent part in Sweden’s presidency of the EU in the first half of 2001. She also had a key role in the run-up to Sweden’s referendum on EMU and spoke out in favour of joining the single currency union. But just three days before the Swedish people were to vote “yes" or “no" to the euro, Anna Lindh died, at the age of 46, from the injuries she sustained in the knife attack at the NK department store in Stockholm. Anna Lindh died on September 11 2003. Curriculum vitae Anna Lindh Anna Lindh was born on June 19, 1957, in Enskede, Stockholm. She was married to County Governor Bo Holmberg. They had two children. Education 1982 LL.M. Positions held 1998-2003 Minister and Head of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs 1994-1998 Minister and Head of the Ministry of the Environment 1991-1994 Stockholm City Commissioner for Culture and Leisure, Chair of Stockholm City Theatre 1991-2003 Member of the Executive Committee of the Social Democratic Party 1984-1990 Chair of the Swedish Social Democratic Youth League 1982-1985 Member of the Riksdag and member of the Parliamentary Committee on Taxation 1982-1983 Law Clerk, Stockholm City Court 1981-1983 Chair of the National Council of Swedish Youth Organisations |
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