A first in Sweden: He became Prime Minister with the support of the far right! Who is Ulf Kristersson?

While the tripartite coalition government with the Moderate Conservative Party, Liberal Party (L), and Christian Democratic Party (KD) received a vote of confidence in the parliament, the far-right Sweden Democrats Party (SD) also supported the government from outside.

Ulf Hjalmar Ed Kristersson (29 December 1963) is a Swedish politician and current Prime Minister of Sweden. He has been serving as the Leader of the Moderate Unity Party since 2017. He previously served as Minister of Social Security from 2010 to 2014. On September 1, 2017, he announced his candidacy for party leadership of the Moderate Party following  Anna Kinberg Batra's resignation.

Ulf Kristersson became a politician who became prime minister for the first time with the support of the far right in the country where the social democrats generally won the elections.

"Political acrobatics expert"

For Ulf Kristersson, a former gymnast, "he showed great aerobatic prowess and managed to stay balanced and reconciled with the four parties," say experts.

In his election campaign, Ulf Kristersson especially highlighted the issues of security, the fight against criminal gangs, public order, and energy security.

Ulf Kristersson, who ran the election campaign with the slogan "I will bring public order to Sweden again", is an experienced politician and a minister in the past.

Kristersson has lost a significant amount of votes to the far-right party recently. While it was discussed that he would lose his seat in the party if he finished the race behind the far-right party in the last election, the Swedish politician suddenly found himself in the prime minister's seat.

The Moderate Unity Party (Swedish: Moderata samlingspartiet, M) is a center-right political party in Sweden. The party was founded in 1904 by a group of conservatives in the Swedish Parliament and generally supports tax cuts, the free market, civil liberties, and economic liberalism. While the party initially held minor positions in center-right governments, it eventually became the leading opposition party of the Swedish Social Democratic Party, and these two parties have dominated Swedish politics ever since.

Kristersson, who swore that he would never reconcile with the far-right party for a period, did not oppose the support of the anti-immigrant and anti-foreign party while he was sitting in the prime minister's seat.

An economics graduate and comic book hero Tintin aficionado, this Swedish politician is married and has three daughters whom he adopted from China.

During the election campaign, Ulf Kristersson promised to reduce gasoline prices, while highlighting the ineffectiveness of the left-wing parties in the fight against organized crime.

Ulf Kristersson, who entered politics in his high school years, was elected to the parliament for the first time as a substitute in 1991 and then in 1994 as a full member.

When Kristersson took office, he stated that Sweden had 7 main problems and listed these as education, crime and gang wars, patient care, immigration and integration, economy, climate and energy crisis, and expansion of rights and freedoms.

According to the results of the general election held on September 11, the right-wing parties received 49.6 percent, while the minority government and the ruling left-wing bloc parties received 48.9 percent.

The beginning years of his life

Ulf Kristersson was born in Skane County to Lars Kristersson and Karin Kristersson. His family moved to Torshälla, outside Eskilstuna, five years later. Kristersson was a gymnast in his youth. He served as a platoon commander in the Uppland Regiment between 1983-1984 and completed his undergraduate studies in economics at Uppsala University.

Kristersson, who worked as the campaign manager of the Moderate Youth Branch (MUF) in the 1985 Swedish general election, became the new president of the MUF on 26 November 1988, replacing Beatrice Ask.

In 1991, the center-right Bildt Cabinet came to power. Kristersson, who served on the Social Security Committee, soon became a fierce critic of the government's crisis deal with the Social Democrats. At the time, Kristersson became close to former party leader Gösta Bohman, who in some ways supported his criticism of the Bildt Cabinet.

Battle of Lycksele

There were important ideological differences between liberals and conservatives in Sweden at that time. All of this broke out at the 1992 congress in Lycksele and became known as the Lycksele War. Liberal alternative Kristersson narrowly lost.

Resigned from Parliament

Kristersson resigned from parliament in April 2000, believing that the new party leader, Bo Lundgren, did not like the services he provided. Kristersson spent two years working in the private sector, specifically as director of communications and vice president of internet consulting firm Adcore, which was one of the victims of the dotcom collapse.

Kristersson was president of the Swedish Adoptionscenter from 2003 to 2005. During Kristersson's presidency, information emerged that the center was involved in the adoption of children abducted from China.

Returned as Mayor

Kristersson returned to active politics as the Mayor of Strängnäs in 2002, and remained in this position until 2006. In 2006, he was appointed as Deputy Mayor in charge of the social welfare and business division in Stockholm. Kristersson was asked by Fredrik Reinfeldt to lead the committee responsible for developing a new family policy for the party. He caused controversy by arguing that fathers should take a month's paternity leave in order for the family to benefit from all benefits. This clearly contradicted the traditional Moderate Party policy of focusing on individual preferences.

Becomes party leader

On October 5, 2010, Reinfeldt appointed Kristersson as Minister of Social Security, and Kristersson held that post for four years. After the 2014 elections, the Reinfeldt cabinet resigned, but Kristersson was re-elected, this time as a Member of the Riksdag for Södermanland Region. After Reinfeldt's resignation as party leader, Anna Kinberg Batra appointed Kristersson as Shadow Finance Minister.

After Batra stepped down as party chairman, on September 1, 2017, Kristersson announced that he would run for the leadership of the Moderate Party. Kristersson has been the party leader since 2018.

Political views

A political profile published in 2018 stated that Kristersson "represents the neoliberal wing of the moderates".

While stating that he supports the integration of refugees into Swedish society, Kristersson argues that refugees should be employed and pay taxes through compulsory cultural assimilation and learning the Swedish language. In a speech he made in 2019, Kristersson stated that it would be appropriate for Sweden to be "the country of hopefuls" and the Moderates to be the "party of hopefuls".

Relationship with SD

After assuming the party leadership, Kristersson initially refused to ally with the Sweden Democrats (SD), but after the 2018 Swedish general election, he ended his policy of non-cooperation and met with the SD leadership for official talks.

Before the 2022 Swedish general election, Kristersson had suggested that he would form a right-wing bloc consisting of the Moderates, Sweden Democrats, Christian Democrats, and Liberals.