Alice Bah Kuhnke ( Bah; 21 December 1971) is a

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

politician A politician is a person who participates in Public policy, policy-making processes, usually holding an elective position in government. Politicians represent the people, make decisions, and influence the formulation of public policy. The roles ...

for the

Green Party A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as environmentalism and social justice. Green party platforms typically embrace Social democracy, social democratic economic policies and fo ...

who is currently a

Member of the European Parliament A member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been Election, elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament. When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the European Coal and S ...

since 2019. Previously she served as the Minister of Culture and Democracy From October 2014 to January 2019. Before going into politics, she was a

television presenter A television presenter (or television host, some become a "television personality") is a person who introduces or hosts television show, television programs, often serving as a mediator for the program and the audience. It is common for people ...

. She also helped found the

think tank A think tank, or public policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology, and culture. Most think tanks are non-governme ...

Sektor3. She was elected Member of the European Parliament in the

2019 European Parliament election in Sweden European Parliament elections were held in Sweden in May 2019 to elect the country's twenty members of the European Parliament. Opinion polls Graphical summary Vote share Results Voter demographics Voter demographics of the 2019 Eur ...

Biography

Bah grew up in Horda in

Jönköping Jönköping (, ) is a Urban areas in Sweden, city in southern Sweden with 112,766 inhabitants (2022). Jönköping is situated on the southern shore of Sweden's second largest lake, Vättern, in the province of Småland. The city is the seat o ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

, the daughter of a

Gambia The Gambia, officially the Republic of The Gambia, is a country in West Africa. Geographically, The Gambia is the List of African countries by area, smallest country in continental Africa; it is surrounded by Senegal on all sides except for ...

n father and a

mother. She attended a

track-and-field Track and field (or athletics in British English) is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name used in North America is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a ...

-oriented high school in

Växjö Växjö () is a city and the seat of Växjö Municipality, Kronoberg County, Sweden. It had 71,282 inhabitants (2020) out of a Municipalities of Sweden, municipal population of 97,349 (2024). It is the administrative, cultural, and industrial ce ...

and was one of the country's best female

sprint Sprint may refer to: Aerospace * Spring WS202 Sprint, a Canadian aircraft design *Sprint (missile), an anti-ballistic missile Automobiles *Alfa Romeo Sprint, automobile produced by Alfa Romeo between 1976 and 1989 *Chevrolet Sprint, a rebadged v ...

ers in the late 1980s, with the 200-meter dash her speciality.

Television career

Bah's television career began with SVT's "

Disney Club ''Disney Club'' is the name of many television shows associated to Disney productions aired mostly in Europe, Latin America and Asia during the 1990s and early 2000s (decade). Some versions used the opening and instrumental from ''The Disney Afte ...

" in 1992. Between 1998 and 1999, she had her own talk show at TV4 and many other television assignments, including the current-event show "Kalla fakta". On 16 January 2001, She hosted the televised music festival Artister mot nazister in Globen.

Private and public sector career

Alice Bah Kuhnke was Director General for the Swedish Agency for Youth and Civil Society 2013–2014. She also worked as General Secretary for the NGO Fairtraide Sweden (''Rättvisemärkt'') 2004-2007 In September 2009, Bah took the position of manager of

environmental quality Environmental quality is considered by scientists and environmentalists as the properties and attributes of the environment, generalized or on a small scale, as they affect human beings and other organisms. It is a measure of the condition of an e ...

and

corporate social responsibility Corporate social responsibility (CSR) or corporate social impact is a form of international private business industry self-regulation, self-regulation which aims to contribute to societal goals of a philanthropy, philanthropic, activist, or chari ...

ÅF AFRY AB (publ) is a Swedish-Finnish supplier of engineering, design, and advisory services, with a global reach. The company originates from Sweden and it was formed in 1895 under the name of "The Southern Swedish Steam Generator Association" ...

. Alongside that job, she served on the board of a small internet design firm, Doberman.

Political career

In 1994, Bah campaigned actively for her country to join the EU in a referendum.Charlie Duxbury (May 23, 2019)
Big names aim to swap national politics for EU career
''

Politico Europe ''Politico Europe'' (stylized as ''POLITICO Europe'') is the European edition of the American news organization '' Politico'' reporting on political affairs of the European Union. Its headquarters are located in Brussels with additional offices in ...

''. After leaving television to study

political science Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and Power (social and political), power, and the analysis of political activities, political philosophy, political thought, polit ...

, she headed a philanthropic fund at the Swedish insurance company

Skandia Skandia is a Swedish financial services corporation that provides insurance, banking and asset management services. Between 2006 and 2015, the financial group underwent major changes. From an insurance company with the main emphasis on non-l ...

. Bah was a member of the Swedish Church synod from 2006 until 2010, a member of the board of the

Royal Dramatic Theatre The Royal Dramatic Theatre (, colloquially ''Dramaten'') is Sweden's national stage for "spoken drama", founded in 1788. Around one thousand shows are put on annually on the theatre's five running stages. The theatre has been at its present lo ...

, and Vice President of

YMCA YMCA, sometimes regionally called the Y, is a worldwide youth organisation based in Geneva, Switzerland, with more than 64 million beneficiaries in 120 countries. It has nearly 90,000 staff, some 920,000 volunteers and 12,000 branches w ...

YWCA The Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA) is a nonprofit organization with a focus on empowerment, leadership, and rights of women, young women, and girls in more than 100 countries. The World office is currently based in Geneva, Swit ...

Sweden. On 3 October 2014, Bah was appointed Minister of Culture and Democracy in the Löfven Cabinet. In addition to her role in government, she served as the Green Party's representative at the

European Green Party The European Green Party (EGP), also referred to as European Greens, is a transnational, European political party representing national parties from across Europe who share Green values. The European Greens works closely with the Greens–Eur ...

from 2016.

Member of the European Parliament, (2019–present)

In 2019, Bah stood down as minister to lead her party's list for the

European elections Elections to the European Parliament take place every five years by universal adult suffrage; with more than 400 million people eligible to vote, they are the second largest democratic elections in the world after India's. Until 2019, 751 ...

. In parliament, she has since been serving as deputy chairwoman of the

Greens–European Free Alliance The Greens/European Free Alliance (Greens/EFA) is a political group of the European Parliament composed primarily of Green politics, green political parties. The group consists of European Green Party (EGP), part of the European Free Allianc ...

(Greens/EFA) group, under the leadership of co-chairs

Ska Keller Franziska Maria "Ska" Keller (; born 22 November 1981) is a German politician and was member of the European Parliament for the Germany constituency from 2009 to 2024. She is a member of the Alliance 90/The Greens, part of the European Green Pa ...

(2019–2022),

Philippe Lamberts Philippe Lamberts (born 14 March 1963) is a Belgian politician serving as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) since 2009. He is a member of Ecolo, within the Greens–European Free Alliance. Education and early career Lamberts graduated as ...

(2019–2024),

Terry Reintke Theresa Reintke (born 9 May 1987) is a German politician who has been serving as a member of the European Parliament from Germany since 2014. She is co-president of the Greens/EFA Group in the European Parliament. She is a member of the Allian ...

(since 2022) and

Bas Eickhout Bas Eickhout (born 8 October 1976) is a Dutch politician who has been a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) since the 2009 elections. He is a member of the GreenLeft, part of the European Green Party. Education and early career Eickhout w ...

(since 2024). She also joined the

Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs A committee or commission is a body of one or more persons subordinate to a deliberative assembly or other form of organization. A committee may not itself be considered to be a form of assembly or a decision-making body. Usually, an assembly o ...

and the

Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality The Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality (FEMM) is a committee of the European Parliament. Membership Chair 9th Term Vice Chairs * Eugenia Rodríguez Palop * Sylwia Spurek * Elissavet Vozemberg-Vrionidi * Radka Maxova 7th Term ...

. In addition to her committee assignments, Bah is a member of the European Parliament Intergroup on Anti-Corruption, the European Parliament Intergroup on Anti-Racism and Diversity, the

European Parliament Intergroup on LGBT Rights The European Parliament Intergroup on LGBTI Rights is an intergroup of the European Parliament's legislators which focuses on the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) persons both inside and outside the European Uni ...

and the European Parliament Intergroup on the Welfare and Conservation of Animals. In January 2022, she was the Greens/EFA candidate as a new

President of the European Parliament The president of the European Parliament presides over the debates and activities of the European Parliament. They also represent the Parliament within the European Union (EU) and internationally. The president's signature is required for Euro ...

. She was not elected, having garnered only 101 votes in the first round. In September 2022, Bah was the recipient of the Environment and Climate Action Award at ''

The Parliament Magazine ''The Parliament Magazine'' is a monthly EU politics, policy and culture magazine. Its website, www.theparliamentmagazine.eu, is a forum for discussion on the latest developments in EU politics and policy, featuring regular contributions from pr ...

s annual MEP Awards. At the 2024 MEP Awards ceremony, Bah was one of twenty MEPs to be given a "Rising Star" award.

Personal life

In her late teens, Bah was engaged for two years to

long jump The long jump is a track and field event in which athletes combine speed, strength and agility in an attempt to leap as far as possible from a takeoff point. Along with the triple jump, the two events that measure jumping for distance as a gr ...

Olympic finalist and World Silver Medalist

Mattias Sunneborn Mattias Sunneborn (born 27 September 1970 in Bunge, Gotland) is a Swedish long jumper. He was an Olympic finalist in 1996. He was the 1996 European Indoor Champion and 1995 World Indoor silver medalist. His personal best jump is 8.21 metres ...

. In 1998, she married TV personality Henrik Johnsson, from whom she was divorced in 2002. The following year, she married actor and singer Johannes Kuhnke, with whom she has three daughters.

References

, - , - , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Bah Kuhnke, Alice 1971 births Living people Swedish television journalists Swedish people of Gambian descent Ministers for culture of Sweden Green Party (Sweden) politicians Women government ministers of Sweden Women television journalists Green Party (Sweden) MEPs MEPs for Sweden 2019–2024 21st-century women MEPs for Sweden 21st-century Swedish women politicians YMCA leaders People from Värnamo Municipality MEPs for Sweden 2024–2029