Lars Mikael Damberg ( born 13 October 1971) is a Swedish politician of the

Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties Form ...

. He served as Minister for Finance from 2021 to 2022. He previously served as Minister for Enterprise from October 2014 to January 2019 and as minister for home affairs from January 2019 to November 2021. He has been a

Member of the Riksdag Members of Parliament (Swedish language, Swedish: ''riksdagsledamöter'', singular: ''riksdagsledamot'') in Sweden sit in the Riksdag. Description ''Members of Parliament'' refers to the elected members of the Riksdag. In Swedish, an MP is us ...

since 2002, representing Stockholm County, and was leader of 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 ...

in 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 ...

from 2012 to 2014.

Political career and education

Damberg was born 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 ...

, Stockholm County, Sweden. His father is the former Swedish Social Democratic party treasurer Nils-Gösta Damberg and his mother a former district chairwoman of the Finnish Social Democratic Youth Riita-Liisa Damberg. Damberg earned a degree in

public administration Public administration, or public policy and administration refers to "the management of public programs", or the "translation of politics into the reality that citizens see every day",Kettl, Donald and James Fessler. 2009. ''The Politics of the ...

from

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 ...

in 2000.

Early career

Between 1995 and 1997, Damberg worked as a political assistant to Minister for Defence Thage G. Peterson, and between 1997 and 1999 as political assistant and speechwriter to

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 ...

. Between 1999 and 2003, he was chairman of the Swedish Social Democratic Youth League.

Political career

Damberg joined the

Swedish Social Democratic Youth League The Swedish Social Democratic Youth League ( ; SSU) is a branch of the Swedish Social Democratic Party and the Swedish Trade Union Confederation in Sweden. The president has been Lisa Nåbo, since August 2021. Organization The members form loc ...

in the late 1980s and served as a member of the board of the organization between 1993 and 1997. He also served as a member of the

municipal council A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, borough cou ...

in Solna Municipality between 1991 and 2002. He is chairman of the Social Democratic party district in Stockholm County since 2004.

Member of the Swedish Parliament, 2002–present

Damberg has served as a

member Member may refer to: * Military jury, referred to as "Members" in military jargon * Element (mathematics), an object that belongs to a mathematical set * In object-oriented programming, a member of a class ** Field (computer science), entries in ...

of the Swedish parliament since 2002, representing the Stockholm County constituency. In the parliament he served as deputy chairman of the Committee on Education and as a member of the War Delegation. He has served as a member of the Committee on Education since 2002. He previously served as a deputy member of the Committee on Defence between 2002 and 2006, and as a deputy member of the Committee on Finance between 2006 and 2010.

Minister of Enterprise

Damberg was appointed Minister for Enterprise on 3 October 2014, serving in the cabinet of

Stefan Löfven. In this capacity, Damberg put forward a 2016 bill stipulating at least 40 percent of board members of listed firms should be women by 2019 at the latest; however, the government later decided to not go ahead with the proposal. Also in 2016, Damberg approved

Vattenfall Vattenfall is a Swedish multinational corporation, multinational electrical power industry, power company owned by the List of government enterprises of Sweden, Swedish state. Beyond Sweden, the company generates power in Denmark, Finland, Germa ...

’s decision to sell its loss-making lignite coal mines and associated power plants in Germany to Czech investor EPH. In 2018, he approved an application from

Nord Stream 2 Nord Stream 2 (German language, German–English language, English mixed expression for "North Stream 2"; ) is a natural gas pipeline from Russia to Germany running through the Baltic Sea, financed by Gazprom and several European energy compani ...

to lay two gas pipelines through its economic zone in the Baltic Sea. In August 2018, Damberg visited the crime scene where Karolin Hakim was killed by a gang member. Damberg also attended the

Bilderberg Meeting The Bilderberg Meeting (also known as the "Bilderberg Group", "Bilderberg Conference" or "Bilderberg Club") is an annual off-the-record forum established in 1954 to foster dialogue between Europe and North America. The group's agenda, originally ...

in 2015 in Telfs-Buchen, Austria.

Minister for Home Affairs

Damberg was later appointed minister for home affairs on 21 January 2019 in the second Löfven Cabinet. Early in his tenure, Damberg coordinated the Swedish government’s efforts seeking support from European allies for a new international tribunal to prosecute

Islamic State The Islamic State (IS), also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and Daesh, is a transnational Salafi jihadism, Salafi jihadist organization and unrecognized quasi-state. IS ...

fighters and military personnel for war crimes perpetrated in Iraq and Syria, modelled on the

International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR; ; ) was an international court, international ''ad-hoc'' court established in November 1994 by the United Nations Security Council in United Nations Security Council Resolution 955, Resolutio ...

and the

International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) was a body of the United Nations that was established to prosecute the war crimes in the Yugoslav Wars, war crimes that had been committed during the Yugoslav Wars and to tr ...

. Among others, he visited counterparts in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands to lobby support for the proposal. When Dan Eliasson, the head of Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency (MSB), was reported to have holidayed with family on Gran Canaria in violation of guidelines propagated by his own agency against unnecessary travel amid the COVID-19 pandemic in Sweden, Damberg asked for his resignation. Also during his time in office, Damberg led efforts in 2021 to give police greater powers to access mobile communications data, including conversations using apps like Facebook Messenger and

WhatsApp WhatsApp (officially WhatsApp Messenger) is an American social media, instant messaging (IM), and voice-over-IP (VoIP) service owned by technology conglomerate Meta. It allows users to send text, voice messages and video messages, make vo ...

. That same year, he appointed a commission to look at measures including the expansion of secret, preventative surveillance of suspects, currently only allowed in cases related to national security.

Minister of Finance

Damberg was appointed Minister of Finance on 30 November 2021 after

Magdalena Andersson Eva Magdalena Andersson (born 23 January 1967) is a Swedish politician and economist who has been serving as Leader of the Opposition since October 2022 and Leader of the Swedish Social Democratic Party since 2021. She has served as a Member of ...

became prime minister.

Other activities

Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) is a multilateral development bank and international financial institution that aims to collectively improve economic and social outcomes in Asia. It is the world's second largest multi-lateral d ...

(AIIB), Ex-Officio Member of the Board of Governors (2021–2022) *

European Bank for Reconstruction and Development The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, shortened to EBRD ( French: ''Banque européenne pour la reconstruction et le développement'' or ''BERD''), is an international financial institution founded in 1991 in Paris. As a multilat ...

(EBRD), Ex-Officio Member of the Board of Governors (2021–2022) *

European Investment Bank The European Investment Bank (EIB) is the European Union's investment bank and is owned by the 27 member states. It is the largest multilateral financial institution in the world. The EIB finances and invests both through equity and debt sol ...

(EIB), Ex-Officio Member of the Board of Governors (2021–2022) *

Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency The Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) is an international financial institution which offers political risk insurance and credit enhancement guarantees. These guarantees help investors protect foreign direct investments against ...

(MIGA),

World Bank Group The World Bank Group (WBG) is a family of five international organizations that make leveraged loans to developing countries. It is the largest and best-known development bank in the world and an observer at the United Nations Development Group ...

, Ex-Officio Member of the Board of Governors (2021–2022) * Nordic Investment Bank (NIB), Ex-Officio Chairwoman of the Board of Governors (2021–2022) *

World Bank The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and Grant (money), grants to the governments of Least developed countries, low- and Developing country, middle-income countries for the purposes of economic development ...

, Ex-Officio Member of the Board of Governors (2021–2022)Board of Governors, as of 5 January 2022

References

External links

Mikael Damberg
at the

Swedish Social Democratic Party The Swedish Social Democratic Party, formally the Swedish Social Democratic Workers' Party ( , S or SAP), usually referred to as The Social Democrats ( ), is a social democratic political party in Sweden. The party is member of the Progressiv ...

Mikael Damberg
at the Swedish parliament {{DEFAULTSORT:Damberg, Mikael Living people 1971 births People from Solna Municipality Members of the Riksdag from the Social Democrats Stockholm University alumni Swedish people of Finnish descent Members of the Riksdag 2002–2006 Members of the Riksdag 2006–2010 Members of the Riksdag 2010–2014 Members of the Riksdag 2014–2018 Members of the Riksdag 2018–2022 Ministers of finance of Sweden Ministers of the interior of Sweden Members of the Riksdag 2022–2026