While some people are still studying in their mid-20s, Romina Pourmokhtari moves in Sweden's highest political circles. Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson is now bringing the Liberals into his cabinet as a minister.
26-year-old Romina Pourmokhtari will become Sweden's new climate and environment minister, making her the country's youngest cabinet member to date. Sweden's new conservative head of government Ulf Kristersson announced the personnel at the presentation of his government team in Parliament in Stockholm. Pourmokhtari has Iranian roots. She was previously the leader of the Young Liberals. She will be leaving this position in November.
In addition to Kristersson, the new cabinet consists of 23 ministers. Twelve of them belong to Kristersson's conservative Moderaterna party, six to the Christian Democrats and five to the Liberals. The experienced conservative politician Tobias Billström will be Sweden's new foreign minister. Ebba Busch, party leader of the Christian Democrats, will become the new energy and economics minister and deputy prime minister. Liberal leader Johan Pehrson becomes labor market and integration minister.
In his government statement, Kristersson prepared parliament for difficult times in view of the many crises. "It's a serious situation that can get worse," he said. His coalition of moderates, Christian Democrats and liberals, who wants to work closely with the right-wing Sweden Democrats, wants the country to be united: "I will form a government for everyone who lives here."
A conservative-right four-party bloc centered around the moderates won 176 of the 349 seats in the Reichstag in the parliamentary elections on September 11. The left-wing camp around Magdalena Andersson's Social Democrats just missed out on the majority with 173 seats. Andersson had led Sweden with a minority government since November, just like her Social Democratic predecessor Stefan Löfven in the previous seven years.
