Jonas Sjöstedt (born 25 December 1964) is a Swedish politician who was the chairman of the Left Party from 2012 until 2020, and a former

metalworker Metalworking is the process of shaping and reshaping metals to create useful objects, parts, assemblies, and large scale structures. As a term it covers a wide and diverse range of processes, skills, and tools for producing objects on every scale ...

. He is also a member of the Swedish parliament since 2010. Sjöstedt was born in Gothenburg. He became politically active as a union leader in the

Umeå Umeå ( , , , locally ; South Westrobothnian: ;). fi, Uumaja; sju, Ubmeje; sma, Upmeje; se, Ubmi) is a city in northeast Sweden. It is the seat of Umeå Municipality and the capital of Västerbotten County. Situated on the Ume River, U ...

Volvo The Volvo Group ( sv, Volvokoncernen; legally Aktiebolaget Volvo, shortened to AB Volvo, stylized as VOLVO) is a Swedish multinational manufacturing corporation headquartered in Gothenburg. While its core activity is the production, distributio ...

plant in the early 1990s. Despite being opposed to Swedish membership of the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been de ...

, he was elected

Member of the European Parliament A Member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament. When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the ECSC) first met in 1952, its ...

in 1995 for the Left Party as part of the European United Left-Nordic Green Left. He remained in that position until he stood down in September 2006. He was elected as a member in the

Parliament of Sweden The Riksdag (, ; also sv, riksdagen or ''Sveriges riksdag'' ) is the legislature and the supreme decision-making body of Sweden. Since 1971, the Riksdag has been a unicameral legislature with 349 members (), elected proportionally and se ...

in 2010, representing

Västerbotten Västerbotten (), known in English as West Bothnia or Westrobothnia, is a province (''landskap'') in the north of Sweden, bordering Ångermanland, Lapland, North Bothnia, and the Gulf of Bothnia. It is known for the cheese named after the p ...

. In the election, he was placed number one on the Left Party list (which generally receives one representative in this constituency), and was elected in a personal landslide of one third of all preference votes (a plurality above 8% being sufficient for a one seat-party). In January 2020 Sjöstedt announced his intention to resign as the Left Party's leader at their congress in May, saying he wants to spend more time with his family who is currently living in Vietnam. Due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

, the congress was postponed, and Sjöstedt remained as party leader until the congress could be held on 31 October 2020, when

Nooshi Dadgostar Mehrnoosh "Nooshi" Dadgostar (born 20 June 1985) is a Swedish politician, a member of the Riksdag since 2014, deputy chair of the Left Party from 2018 to 2020, and the chair since 2020. Career 2020–present: Left Party leadership On 3 Febr ...

was elected as his successor.

Personal life

Living in New York City from 2006 to 2010, Sjöstedt is also a member of the

Socialist Party USA The Socialist Party USA, officially the Socialist Party of the United States of America,"The article of this organization shall be the Socialist Party of the United States of America, hereinafter called 'the Party'". Art. I of th"Constitution o ...

. He writes for Swedish leftist publications, radio, and print columns, as well as works of history and fiction. He is married to Swedish diplomat Ann Måwe, who was part of the Swedish delegation to the United Nations.

References

External links

Bio at Radio UPF
by Jonas Sjöstedt 20 February 2005. * ttps://web.archive.org/web/20081121075601/http://www.jonassjostedt.com/ Sjöstedt's website from his time as an MEP
English Translation
.
European Parliament Voting Record

''En vänsterman i New York'' Västerbottens-Kuriren
3 December 2006. Interview on adjusting to life in New York City. {{DEFAULTSORT:Sjöstedt, Jonas 1964 births Members of the Riksdag from the Left Party (Sweden) Left Party (Sweden) MEPs Living people MEPs for Sweden 1995–1999 MEPs for Sweden 1999–2004 MEPs for Sweden 2004–2009 Swedish socialists Articles containing video clips Socialist Party USA politicians from New York (state) People from Gothenburg