2010-09-02
Light Rain Shower
Now: 13°C
RSS-feed Subscribe via RSS


News

Swedish top power holders listed

National News | 2009-11-07 | 1 comment
The weekly news magazine Fokus has for the third consecutive year ranked Sweden´s most powerful. It stands clear that if you are male and is named Mats you have a good chance to hold power in Sweden.

It might not surprise that Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt top the list. He is followed by the widely popular Minister for Finance, Anders Borg. Then comes the top placed woman, Mona Sahlin, leader of the Social Democratic party.

Of the 100 people on the list is there 72 men and only 28 women, to be compared with ten female ministers in a cabinet of 22, or the 47 per cent women in the Swedish parliament. This difference with how it is in the Swedish political sphere in general is primarily because men get higher ratings when it comes to informal power, Fokus explains.

The news magazine has also counted what forenames that have occurred most times since they started their list of Swedish power holders. Those names that have rendered the most power in the index are all male, and most power seems to be connected to the name Mats. Other names are Anders, Carl, Göran and Lars.

Royal rise

Crown Princess Victoria with fiance Daniel
Westling. Photo: the Royal Court
One person that has risen sharply on this years list is Crown Princess Victoria (place 23). When the Crown Princess and her fiancé Daniel Westling announced that they will get married in 2010 it easily became the news of the year.

This has resulted in a strong media presence, but Fokus make the argument that the marriage also will increase her influence in a more tangible way. A step into marriage is also a step to secure the succession, which is the basis for Victoria´s power. And for each year that passes is her informal power strengthened by connections to the power elite.

Another trend in the 2009 list is that next years election has started to give an impression. Especially the parties of the political opposition are forming its forces. The party secretary of the Social Democrats, Ibrahim Baylan (place 37), the Greens economic spokesperson, Mikaela Waltersson (place 40), and Green Party spokesperson Maria Wetterstrand (place six), have climbed the list substantially since given much media presence.

This summers election to the EU Parliament have also stirred the pot. Pirate Party leader Rick Falkvinge (place 48), Christian Democrat MEP Alf Svensson (place 41) and Liberal Party MEP Marit Paulsen (place 55) have strengthened their shares. So did also Gudrun Schyman (place 34), a MEP candidate and popular feminist who was not able to take a seat for her party, the Feminist Initiative.

Top 30 of the list

 

  1. Fredrik Reinfeldt. Prime Minister, leader of the Moderate Party.
  2.  Anders Borg. Minister for Finance. Moderate party politician.
  3.  Mona Sahlin. Leader of the Social Democratic party.
  4.  Jan Björklund. Minister for Education. Leader of the Liberal Peoples party.
  5. Per Schlingmann. Secretary of the Moderate Party.
  6.  Maria Wetterstrand. Spokesperson for the Green party.
  7.  Marcus Wallenberg. Chairman of the board, SEB (bank).
  8.  Wanja Lundby-Wedin. Chairman of the Swedish Trade Union Federation.
  9.  Maud Olofsson. Minister for Enterprise and Energy. Leader of the Centre party.
  10. Gustaf Douglas. Enterpriser. Member of the Moderate party board.
  11. Carl Bildt. Minister for Foreign Affairs. Moderate party politician.
  12. Stefan Ingves. Governor of the Riksbank, Sweden’s central bank.
  13. Nyamko Sabuni. Minister for Integration and Gender Equality. Politician of the Liberal Peoples party.
  14. Göran Hägglund. Minister for Health and Social Affairs. Leader of the Christian Democrats.
  15.  Beatrice Ask. Minister for Justice. Politician of the Moderate party.
  16. Lars Ohly. Leader of the Left party.
  17. Mats Odell. Minister for Local Government and Financial Markets. Politician of the Christian Democrats.
  18. Jacob Wallenberg. Chairman of the board, Investor (investment company).
  19. Leif Johansson. CEO, Volvo Group (trucks, etc.).
  20. Sven Otto Littorin. Minister for Employment. Politician of the Moderate party.
  21.  Antonia Ax:son Johnson. Chairman of the board, Axel Johnson Group (trade, etc.).
  22. Andreas Carlgren. Minister for the Environment. Politician of the Centre party.
  23. Crown Princess Victoria.
  24.  Peter Eriksson. Spokesperson for the Green party.
  25.  Cecilia Malmström. Minister for EU Affairs. Politician of the Liberal Peoples party.
  26. Carl Bennet. Chairman of the board, Getinge Group (medtech).
  27.  Lena Melin. Political commentator, Aftonbladet newspaper.
  28. Urban Bäckström. CEO,  Confederation of Swedish Enterprise.
  29. Thomas Östros. Economic spokesperson for the Social Democrats.
  30. Kristina Stenbeck. Chairman of the board, Kinnevik (media, telecom etc.).

Facts:

The editorial board of news magazine Fokus chose 250 Swedish power holders from politics, industry, science and culture that they felt could compete for a spot among the top 100 names on the 2009 list. These 250 people was then measured in four categories: formal power, media impact, informal power and exceptional factors.        

 

 

       Print Print article

Readers' comments

2009-11-08 13:46 lancelot wrote:
Where is King Carl XVI Gustaf in this so called "ranking"??? People listen to him in a crisis situation. He is our King!


Write a comment

All comments are reviewed by the moderator before they are posted. Only comments in English written in a respectable tone will be published.
Read a full description of our policy for comments.



Name:
  

Latest headlines




Question

Sweden recently decided to start taking admission fees for non-EU students starting in the fall semester 2011. What do you think of this?

News in short
TODAY
2010-09-01
2010-08-31
2010-08-30
2010-08-28

More...
Reader's comment
Stockholm Calendar
Sep 3
Sep 5 - Sep 11
Sep 7
Sep 12
Sep 16
Sep 17
Sep 19
Sep 22
Oct 8 - Oct 9
Oct 20 - Oct 22
Oct 27
Oct 29 - Oct 30
Nov 13 - Nov 14
Nov 26 - Nov 28