Lars Erik Ansgar Leijonborg (born 21 November 1949) is a Swedish politician, Minister for Higher Education and Research 2006-2009 and Head of the Ministry of Education and Research 2006–2007. During a ten-year period from 1997 to 2007, he served as chairman of the Liberal People's Party (). He announced on 11 June 2009 that he would be leaving the Cabinet of Fredrik Reinfeldt as soon as a successor was appointed. He was replaced by Tobias Krantz on 17 June 2009.

Biography

Lars Leijonborg grew up in

Solna Solna ( or , ), also known as Solna Municipality, is a municipality in central Stockholm County, Sweden, located just north of Stockholm City Centre. Its seat is located in the town of Solna, which is a part of the Stockholm urban area. Solna i ...

north of

Stockholm Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...

. In 1971 he became the leader of the Liberal Youth of Sweden (''Liberala ungdomsförbundet''), the Liberal Party's youth organisation. In 1974 he graduated from his studies in social work at

Stockholm University Stockholm University (SU) () is a public university, public research university in Stockholm, Sweden, founded as a college in 1878, with university status since 1960. With over 33,000 students at four different faculties: law, humanities, social ...

. He was

party secretary In politics, a party secretary is a senior official within a political party with responsibility for the organizational and daily political work. In most parties, the party secretary is second in rank to the party leader (or party chairman). In s ...

from 1980 to 1983 and editor-in-chief for the party magazine ''NU'' from 1983 to 1984. After a brief period as a

management consultant Management consulting is the practice of providing consulting services to organizations to improve their performance or in any way to assist in achieving organizational objectives. Organizations may draw upon the services of management consultant ...

, he was elected a member of the

Riksdag The Riksdag ( , ; also or , ) is the parliament and the parliamentary sovereignty, supreme decision-making body of the Kingdom of Sweden. Since 1971, the Riksdag has been a unicameral parliament with 349 members (), elected proportional rep ...

(parliament) in 1985. In 1990 he became the party's second deputy chairman. Succeeding Maria Leissner, on 15 March 1997 he was unanimously elected chairman of the party. In the 1998 parliamentary elections, ''Folkpartiet'' received 4.7% of the vote, just above the 4% threshold for parliamentary representation. It was the worst election result the party had seen since

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

. Even within the party, Leijonborg's position was questioned by many. The youth organisation he once headed openly called for his resignation. Despite the internal opposition, he managed to hold on to his position. And when, in the campaign before the 2002 parliamentary elections, the party suddenly surged after launching a proposal on making a Swedish language test one of the requirements for a naturalized Swedish citizenship, Leijonborg was nicknamed "the Lion King" (''Leijonkungen'') in the tabloids. The election result, 13.3%, was a success for the party and for Leijonborg personally, but since the party's

centre-right Centre-right politics is the set of right-wing politics, right-wing political ideologies that lean closer to the political centre. It is commonly associated with conservatism, Christian democracy, liberal conservatism, and conservative liberalis ...

partners failed to gain ground, the

Social Democrats Social democracy is a social, economic, and political philosophy within socialism that supports political and economic democracy and a gradualist, reformist, and democratic approach toward achieving social equality. In modern practice, s ...

could remain in government. In 2006 the party was a part of the

Alliance for Sweden The Alliance (, from 2004-10 the ''Alliance for Sweden,'' ), was a Centre-right politics, centre-right liberal-conservative political alliance in Sweden. The Alliance consisted of the four centre-right list of political parties in Sweden, politic ...

, which won the election, although after a scandal where members of the party had hacked into a rival party's computer network, the Liberal Party lost almost six

percentage point A percentage point or percent point is the unit (measurement), unit for the difference (mathematics), arithmetic difference between two percentages. For example, moving up from 40 percent to 44 percent is an increase of 4 percentage points (altho ...

s compared to the 2002 election, getting a total of 7.5% of the votes. On 6 October 2006 Lars Leijonborg was made Minister for Education and Research in the Cabinet of Fredrik Reinfeldt. On 16 October 2006, Leijonborg temporarily took over the responsibilities for Minister for Culture Cecilia Stegö Chilò, who resigned that day. Eight days later, on 24 October, Lena Adelsohn Liljeroth assumed the post as Minister for Culture. Leijonborg announced his resignation as party leader on 23 April 2007. He resigned from his post in September 2007. His successor as chairman, Minister for Schools

Jan Björklund Jan Arne Björklund (born 18 April 1962) is a Swedish Liberals (Sweden), Liberal politician. He was a member of the Riksdag from 2006 to 2019, representing Stockholm County (Riksdag constituency), Stockholm County, and served as leader of the Lib ...

also took office as the new head of the Ministry of Education and Research. Leijonborg remained in the cabinet, keeping his political assignments as a minister for higher education and research but resigned from the government on 11 June 2009. Leijonborg is a member of the congregationalist

Mission Covenant Church of Sweden The Mission Covenant Church of Sweden ( – until 2003 'Swedish Mission Covenant'), founded in 1878, was a Swedish evangelical free church in the Radical Pietist tradition. It was the second-largest Protestant denomination in Sweden, after the ...

().Christian Liberals – Folkpartiet
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Bibliography

* Liberal feminism (2001) * Liberala perspektiv i svenskt samhällsliv : 1967, 2007 och 2017 (2007)

References

External links