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27 January, 2012
Stefan Löfven, President of Sweden’s largest industrial union, IF Metall, was elected today by the Presidium of the Social Democratic Party as Chairman of the resurgent political party. Löfven was nominated yesterday, 26 January, by the party’s Executive Committee to replace Håkan Juholt, who resigned last weekend.
In a congratulatory note sent by General Secretary Manfred Warda yesterday, the ICEM said, “We cannot think of a better, more effective and progressive leader for Sweden.” The full ICEM letter can be found here.
Löfven has been President of 355,000-member IF Metall since the union was formed on 1 January 2006 with the merger of the Swedish Industrial Union (Industrifacket) and the Swedish Metalworkers’ Union (Metall). Previously, he served as Vice President of Metall from 2002. The 55-year-old Löfven had been employed by that union since 1995, first as a national bargaining officer, then as Secretary, and from 1999 to 2002 as head of the Organising Department.
“With his very long and solid background in the trade union movement, Stefan will be an excellent leader of the Social Democratic Party,” said IF Metall and ICEM Vice President Anders Ferbe. “He has the power that can give stability and strength to our party.”
The Social Democratic Party had long been the dominant political party in Sweden, establishing the Nordic nation as a model of social fairness and justice both inside Sweden and throughout the world. But in consecutive elections in 2006 and 2010, the leftish party was dethroned and a center-right ruling coalition government took control.
Warda, in his letter, pledged that the ICEM “will stand with you in order that the Social Democratic Party once again not only leads Sweden, but continues to serve as the stellar social model for all the world to follow.”
Löfven was born in Stockholm but grew up in Ådalen, Ångermanland, Sweden. His first industrial job was at a sawmill in Domsjö in 1979, but he then went to work that same year as a welder at the military and all-terrain vehicle manufacturer Hägglunds and Söner AB, now part of UK-based BAE Systems. He served as shop steward, sector president and branch president.
Before his nomination was publicly announced by the Social Democrats’ Executive yesterday afternoon, he addressed staff of IF Metall, and said, “I will keep my roots and my ideas about working life and social welfare for the benefit of all workers, not least of all the members of IF Metall.”