Party leaders rejected foreign post
The Local Sweden - [email protected]
Published: 7 Oct, 2006 CET.
Updated: Sat 7 Oct 2006 19:02 CET
The appointment of Carl Bildt as foreign minister may have been seen by many as a masterstroke by Fredrik Reinfeldt - but he was not the new prime minister's first choice, it has emerged.
Before Bildt was offered the role, Reinfeldt asked the other party leaders in the Alliance if they were interested in the job.
That's according to the Liberals' leader Lars Leijonborg, speaking on Swedish Radio's Saturday interview.
Leijonborg said that Reinfeldt's attitude was that he would have accepted any of the three as foreign minister - Leijonborg himself, Maud Olofsson of the Centre Party, or the Christian Democrats' Göran Hägglund.
But Leijonborg said that he felt it would have been damaging for his party to have a leader who was not permanently in Sweden.
Comments
See Also
Before Bildt was offered the role, Reinfeldt asked the other party leaders in the Alliance if they were interested in the job.
That's according to the Liberals' leader Lars Leijonborg, speaking on Swedish Radio's Saturday interview.
Leijonborg said that Reinfeldt's attitude was that he would have accepted any of the three as foreign minister - Leijonborg himself, Maud Olofsson of the Centre Party, or the Christian Democrats' Göran Hägglund.
But Leijonborg said that he felt it would have been damaging for his party to have a leader who was not permanently in Sweden.
Join the conversation in our comments section below. Share your own views and experience and if you have a question or suggestion for our journalists then email us at [email protected].
Please keep comments civil, constructive and on topic – and make sure to read our terms of use before getting involved.
Please log in here to leave a comment.