Former Minister of State Anna-Greta Leijon has passed away.
The former Social Democratic politician began his political career in the mid-1960s at the Swedish Labor Market Board in Stockholm.
During the 70s and 80s, Leijon was, among other things, Minister of Immigration and Equality, also Minister of the Labor Market.
In 1987, Leijon was appointed Minister of Justice by the then Prime Minister Ingvar Carlsson. A year later, Leijon chose to resign following the so-called Ebbe Carlsson affair.
One of the first female ministers
In an interview in SVT’s Min sanning from 2013, Anna-Greta Leijon talked regarding her political career, which was stormy at times.
Leijon was one of the first female ministers in Sweden.
– It was a very much more male society in general back then and I had worked a lot on issues related to women’s opportunities to come forward in both politics and in other ways and get the right to work and such issues. It felt exciting and nervous at the same time, Leijon told the program.
Still politically active
Anna-Greta Leijon was for ten years director of Skansen, also chairman of the board of the Modern Museum in Stockholm. Between 1994 and 2000, Leijon was also chairman of the board for Sveriges Television.
She continued her political career until a few years ago. In 2021, she was active in the S association’s Onsdagsklubben.
Magdalena Andersson: “A pioneer”
Social Democrats party leader Magdalena Andersson expresses the party’s sadness in a message:
“Anna-Greta Leijon was a pioneering politician with strong integrity and an unfailing voice for vulnerable people. As Sweden’s first female Minister of Justice, she paved the way for other women and she was a pioneer in the fight for equality. She will be deeply missed, but her work lives on,” writes Magdalena Andersson.
