Kjell Larsson (26 March 1943 – 21 December 2002) was a Swedish

social democrat Social democracy is a Social philosophy, social, Economic ideology, economic, and political philosophy within socialism that supports Democracy, political and economic democracy and a gradualist, reformist, and democratic approach toward achi ...

politician. He held many positions in the social democratic party and was one of the advisors to leading Swedish social democrats, namely

Olof Palme Sven Olof Joachim Palme (; ; 30 January 1927 – 28 February 1986) was a Swedish politician and statesman who served as Prime Minister of Sweden from 1969 to 1976 and 1982 to 1986. Palme led the Swedish Social Democratic Party from 1969 until as ...

and

Ingvar Carlsson Gösta Ingvar Carlsson (born 9 November 1934) is a Swedish politician who twice served as Prime Minister of Sweden, first from 1986 to 1991 and again from 1994 to 1996. He was leader of the Swedish Social Democratic Party from 1986 to 1996. He ...

. He served as the minister of environment for two years between 1998 and 2000.

Biography

Larsson was born in

Gothenburg Gothenburg ( ; ) is the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, second-largest city in Sweden, after the capital Stockholm, and the fifth-largest in the Nordic countries. Situated by the Kattegat on the west coast of Sweden, it is the gub ...

on 26 March 1943. His father was a construction worker. Larsson started his career as the secretary of the Swedish Construction Workers' Union in 1967. He joined the Social Democratic Party in 1970 and began to work as an analyst on its national board. Between 1973 and 1976 he was the political advisor to Olof Palme. In 1976, Larsson became his speech writer and general political advisor. From 1980 to 1982 he headed the ARE company, the Social Democrats' advertising company. In 1982, when the Party won the general elections, Larsson was appointed state secretary to

Deputy Prime Minister A deputy prime minister or vice prime minister is, in some countries, a Minister (government), government minister who can take the position of acting prime minister when the prime minister is temporarily absent. The position is often likened to th ...

Ingvar Carlsson. In 1996, he was made director-general of the Swedish export credits guarantee board and in 1998, he was appointed as the environment minister to the

cabinet Cabinet or The Cabinet may refer to: Furniture * Cabinetry, a box-shaped piece of furniture with doors and/or drawers * Display cabinet, a piece of furniture with one or more transparent glass sheets or transparent polycarbonate sheets * Filin ...

led by

Prime Minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

Göran Persson Hans Göran Persson (; born 20 January 1949) is a Swedish politician who served as Prime Minister of Sweden from 1996 to 2006 and leader of the Swedish Social Democratic Party from 1996 to 2007. Persson was first elected to the Swedish Parliame ...

. In April 2001, Larsson visited

US President The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed For ...

George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician and businessman who was the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Bush family and the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he i ...

together with Environment Commissioner

Margot Wallström Margot Elisabeth Wallström (; born 28 September 1954) is a Swedish politician of the Swedish Social Democratic Party who served as Deputy Prime Minister of Sweden and Minister for Foreign Affairs from 2014 to 2019 and Minister for Nordic Coop ...

and several other leading politicians to persuade him to confirm the Kyoto climate-change agreement, but their visit was not a success. In addition to political posts, Larsson served as the head of Table Tennis Association. Larsson had an operation and retired from politics due to his illness in September 2002. He was succeeded by

Lena Sommestad Lena Sommestad (born 3 April 1957) is a Swedish Social Democratic politician and economic historian. She was Minister for the Environment in the Ministry of Sustainable Development in the Cabinet of Göran Persson from 2002 to 2006. Sommestad ...

as environment minister. Larsson died at age 59 in Stockholm on 22 December 2002 due to cancer. He had three children.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Larsson, Kjell 20th-century Swedish politicians 21st-century Swedish politicians 1943 births 2002 deaths Deaths from cancer in Sweden Politicians from Gothenburg Ministers for the environment of Sweden Swedish Social Democratic Party politicians