Tomas Morgan Johansson (born 14 May 1970) is a Swedish politician 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 ...

who served as deputy prime minister of Sweden from 2019 to 2022. He served as

Minister for Justice A justice ministry, ministry of justice, or department of justice, is a ministry or other government agency in charge of the administration of justice. The ministry or department is often headed by a minister of justice (minister for justice in a ...

from 2014 to 2022 and as

minister for home affairs An interior minister (sometimes called a minister of internal affairs or minister of home affairs) is a cabinet official position that is responsible for internal affairs, such as public security, civil registration and identification, emergency ...

from 2021 to 2022, having previously served in that position from 2017 to 2019. He also served as Minister for Migration and Asylum Policy from 2014 to 2017 and again from 2019 to 2021. Johansson was previously Minister for Public Health and Social Services in the Persson Cabinet from 2002 to 2006 and has been 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 ...

for the southern

Skåne County Skåne County ( ), sometimes referred to as Scania County or just Scania in English, is the southernmost Counties of Sweden, county, or , of Sweden, mostly corresponding to the traditional Provinces of Sweden, province of Scania. It borders th ...

electoral district since the 1998 elections. As a member of the opposition, he was Chairman of the Committee on Justice of the Riksdag from 2010 to 2014.

Career

Early career

Johansson worked as a journalist and editorial writer for the social democratic daily newspaper ''Arbetet Nyheterna'' 1994-1997 and as a political expert in the Prime Minister's Office from 1997 to 1998. In 2010, author Christer Isaksson described Johansson as a member of the left-leaning faction of the Social Democratic Party. He is also a member of the Swedish Humanist Association and has previously served on the association board.

Minister of Justice

Johansson was appointed minister of justice on 3 October 2014 in

Stefan Löfven Kjell Stefan Löfven (; officially Löfvén; born 21 July 1957) is a Swedish politician who has served as the President of European Socialists since October 2022. He previously served as Prime Minister of Sweden from October 2014 to November 20 ...

's cabinet. On 23 March 2015, Johansson was attacked at the Broby hospital asylum center in Broby,

Östra Göinge Municipality Östra Göinge Municipality () is a municipality in Scania County in southern Sweden. Its seat is located in Broby. The present municipality was formed in 1974 when the former municipalities of ''Broby'', ''Glimåkra'', ''Hjärsås'' and ''Knis ...

, Skåne. A 25-year-old man charged at Johansson and sprayed him with a fire extinguisher. The attacker was quickly apprehended and Johansson was not injured in what was referred to as a premeditated assault. In November 2019, the

Sweden Democrats The Sweden Democrats ( , SD ) is a Nationalism, nationalist and Right-wing populism, right-wing populist political party in Sweden founded in 1988. As of 2024, it is the largest member of Sweden's Right-wing politics, right-wing bloc and the sec ...

issued a vote of no confidence at Johansson due to the escalating gang crime and ongoing bombing campaign. No confidence vote was supported by

Moderate Party The Moderate Party ( , , M), commonly referred to as the Moderates ( ), is a Liberal conservatism, liberal-conservative* * * * * List of political parties in Sweden, political party in Sweden. The party generally supports tax cuts, the free ma ...

and Christian Democrats, but at 151 votes against the needed 175, did not have enough votes in the

to carry. Although no confidence vote was interpreted as a signal from those three opposition parties that the government was losing control of the situation. On 26 December 2020 during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, Johansson was seen shopping at Nova Lund, a small shopping mall in

Lund Lund (, ;"Lund"
(US) and ) is a city in the provinces of Sweden, province of Scania, southern Swed ...

. He was accompanied with several bodyguards. This was criticised because he violated the recommendations from the Public Health Agency of Sweden. Prime Minister

condemned the act, saying it was "careless". On 12 December 2021, Johansson stated that Stockholm police had failed in fighting crime. He also mentioned that municipalities that failed fighting crime could learn from those, who successfully did so. He also specified that there were boundaries for how far the government would go when it came to legislation. He also said he did not want to go further with body searches and raising the limit for exclude severe criminal gang members. On 2 June 2022, the

announced a

motion of no confidence A motion or vote of no confidence (or the inverse, a motion or vote of confidence) is a motion and corresponding vote thereon in a deliberative assembly (usually a legislative body) as to whether an officer (typically an executive) is deemed fi ...

against Johansson due to what they perceived as inaction against criminal gangs. The motion was supported by the

Moderates Moderate is an ideological category which entails Centrism, centrist views on a liberal-conservative spectrum. It may also designate a rejection of radical politics, radical or extremism, extreme views, especially in regard to politics and religi ...

, Christian Democrats, and the Liberals. Prime Minister

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 ...

called the motion "irresponsible" and could have "serious consequences", adding that if the motion is passed, the entire government would resign. Johansson himself stated that the opposition parties were utilising attacks on his person and argued that they did not have any better solutions to reduce the recruitment of people into criminal gangs. Ultimately, the motion failed with 174 votes in favour, one short of the required 175, with independent Amineh Kakabaveh being the key vote in abstaining.

References

External links