Annie Lööf

Annie Marie Therése Lööf (Swedish: [ˈløːv]; born Johansson 16 July 1983, Maramö, Värnamo Municipality, Småland) is a Swedish politician of the Centre Party. She is the Leader of the Centre Party since 2011 and has been Member of the Riksdag, representing her home constituency Jönköping County, since 2006.^[2] She served as Minister for Enterprise from 2011 to 2014.

Biography

Annie Lööf was born and raised in Maramö outside Värnamo. She still lives in Värnamo. During her last year at Finnvedens Secondary School in Värnamo, where she studied social sciences, she developed an interest in politics, and at the end of 2001 she joined the Centre Party. During the 2002 election she was employed as an election-agent for the Centre Party Youth in Jönköping County and the same year was awarded a Dag Hammarskjöld Scholarship, which gave her a chance to immerse herself in international peace and environmental issues at the UN Headquarters in New York.^[3] After the election she enrolled to study law at Lund University and graduated in August 2011 with a law degree.

In the general election of 2006 she was elected to the Riksdag, being at that time the youngest member of the legislature.^[4]

In January 2007 Lööf along with her colleague Fredrick Federley initiated the Liberal Group, a network of liberal-minded people inside and outside the Riksdag. She has also been the deputy chairman of the Centre Party Youth. For several years she served on the board of the Nordic Centre Youth Federation, Scandinavia's second largest youth organization.

In 2008 Lööf was awarded the "Young European Leadership Program" grant from the United States Embassy.

Career

Assignments

Before she became a minister and party leader, Annie Lööf was member of the Committee on Finance, the War Delegation and a deputy of the Committee on Justice and first deputy group leader for the Centre Party's parliamentary group and member of the party's executive board. She has served as a member on several government commissions, including the E-Publicity Committee, the investigation of the police needs of signal intelligence and in the signals intelligence committee, which evaluated the National Defence Radio Establishment activities.

During her two terms, she has been active in municipal politics in Värnamo, as deputy of the City Council from 2002 to 2004, as member of the Citizens' Board from 2002 to 2004, as well as ordinary municipal councillor from 2006 to 2007. Lööf was also elected to the local councils for Värnamo in 2010, but left the mission because of many national commitments. Until 2008 Lööf was a substitute to the Nordic Council's Swedish delegation, and the pre-term in office she worked for the Committee on the Constitution as a member. In addition to her duties as member of the Riksdag, Lööf has for four years been a member of the Youth Board's advisory council and for two years in the Director of Coompanion - Cooperative Development Sweden.

After the 2010 general election, Lööf was elected Chairman of the National Post-Election Analysis Group the Centre Party appointed. The Analysis Group presented its report in January 2011. The same year she became economic spokesperson of her party.^[5] On 31 August 2011 the Centre Party proposed Annie Lööf as the new party chairman and on the party's congress in Åre on 23 September she was elected by acclamation.^[6]

Party leader and Minister for Enterprise

Lööf at the "Stora Tillväxtdagen" (Major Growth Day) in April 2012

Lööf was elected party leader and party chairman on 23 September 2011, succeeding Maud Olofsson. She thus became the Centre Party's youngest-ever party chairman.

On 29 September 2011 Lööf succeeded Maud Olofsson as Minister for Enterprise. She also saw to replace Minister for the Environment Andreas Carlgren with Lena Ek while the Minister for Rural Affairs Eskil Erlandsson kept his seat.

During Almedalsveckan 2012, in her address at the Centre Party gathering, Lööf criticized the government of which she was a part for its inability to keep up the pace of reform that had been a leading part of the Alliance platform in 2006, and urged a revival. "The joint project has lost momentum. Project embers have died down," she said.^[7] These points were met with fierce opposition from the other cabinet parties, mainly from the Christian Democrats and the party secretary Acko Ankarberg.^[8] The speech also drew attention because of the caustic review by Social Democrat former minister of culture Marita Ulvskog: "New speechwriter for Annie Lööf? unfortunately didn't help. Credibility none. Would work in Top Model, not in reality" she wrote on Twitter.^[9] Ulvskog later apologized for some of the wording.

On 6 August 2012 Lööf dismissed Christina Lugnet, the Director-General of Tillväxtverket, after it had become known that Lugnet's government agency had spent approximately 16 million SEK on mostly internal representation over a brief period of time: banquets, kick-offs, hotel stays for its personnel and conferences.^[10] This was out of bounds under Swedish law and by the agency's own rules.^[11]

On 8 August, it became known that Lööf used taxpayers' money for a number of restaurant visits, including banquets for her staff.^[12] A memo was revealed to have amounted 20 000 SEK.^[13] The Centre Party has subsequently repaid these expenses to the treasury, as it was for party activities.^[14]

Personal life

Lööf is the daughter of Centre Party politician Hans-Göran Johansson, the current Mayor of Värnamo Municipality. On 30 July 2011 Lööf married Carl-Johan Carlsson. They adopted Lööf as their common surname.^[15] On 10 September 2015 she gave birth to a daughter.^[16]

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Annie Lööf.

• Annie Lööf (Cen) at the Riksdag website
• Official website (Swedish)