Stefan Löfven, Swedish trade union leader and politician, 33rd Prime Minister of Sweden
Kjell Stefan Löfven (Swedish pronunciation: [ˈstěːfan lœˈveːn]; officially Löfvén; born 21 July 1957) is a Swedish former politician who served as the Prime Minister of Sweden from October 2014 to November 2021 and leader of the Social Democratic Party from 2012 to 2021.After leaving school and completing military service in the Swedish Air Force, Löfven trained as a welder and began employment as a metalworker. At the same time, he became an active trade unionist. He was eventually elected as an ombudsman within the Swedish Metalworkers' Union (SMU) and in January 2006, Löfven was elected the first Chairman of IF Metall, a new 'super' trade union formed after smaller unions, including the SMU, voted to merge. After the resignation of Håkan Juholt, in January 2012, Löfven was unanimously selected by the executive board of the Social Democratic Party to become the party's new leader. This made Löfven the Leader of the Opposition, despite the fact that he did not have a seat in the Riksdag at the time.Löfven led the Social Democrats into the 2014 election. Despite initial opinion poll leads, the party only gained a single seat; due to the poor performance of the governing Moderate Party losing 23 seats, Löfven was able to form a minority coalition government with the Green Party. He was appointed prime minister of Sweden on 3 October 2014. He went on to secure a second term in the aftermath of the inconclusive 2018 election, which saw both main parties suffer losses; after a months-long impasse that set a new record for government formation, Löfven was able to secure abstentions from MPs belonging to the Centre Party, the Left Party and the Liberals, and was re-elected as prime minister by the Riksdag in January 2019. On 21 June 2021, after the Left Party withdrew their support of the government, Löfven lost a confidence motion in the Riksdag, triggering a brief crisis, which was resolved on 5 July when Löfven announced that talks to reform the government had been successful, and two days later the Riksdag once again confirmed Löfven as prime minister in a vote. Dubbed a "political escape artist" and the "Harry Houdini of European politics", Löfven was able to successfully remain as Prime Minister at the helm of historically weak coalition governments in the turbulent Swedish political landscape from 2014.On 22 August 2021, Löfven announced that he would retire as leader of the Social Democrats at the November party congress, and would then resign as prime minister upon the election of his successor. In September 2021, it was confirmed that Finance Minister Magdalena Andersson would be the only candidate at the congress to replace Löfven. Andersson was elected party leader on 4 November. Löfven officially resigned as prime minister on 10 November 2021, though he continued to lead a caretaker government until his successor took office on 30 November 2021.