Lars Mikael Damberg (born 13 October 1971) is a Swedish politician of the

Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties For ...

. He served as

Minister for Finance A finance minister is an executive or cabinet position in charge of one or more of government finances, economic policy and financial regulation. A finance minister's portfolio has a large variety of names around the world, such as "treasury", " ...

from 2021 to 2022. He previously served as Minister for Enterprise from October 2014 to January 2019 and as

minister for home affairs An interior minister (sometimes called a minister of internal affairs or minister of home affairs) is a cabinet official position that is responsible for internal affairs, such as public security, civil registration and identification, emergenc ...

from January 2019 to November 2021. He has been

Member of the Riksdag Members of Parliament ( Swedish: ''riksdagsledamöter'', singular: ''riksdagsledamot'') in Sweden sit in the Riksdag. Description ''Members of Parliament'' refers to the elected members of the Riksdag. In Swedish, an MP is usually referred to ...

since 2002, representing

Stockholm County Stockholm County ( sv, Stockholms län, link=no ) is a county or ''län'' (in Swedish) on the Baltic Sea coast of Sweden. It borders Uppsala County and Södermanland County. It also borders Mälaren and the Baltic Sea. The city of Stockho ...

, and was leader of the Social Democrats in the

Riksdag 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 ...

from 2012 to 2014.

Political career and education

Damberg was born in

Solna Solna Municipality ( sv, Solna kommun or , ) is a municipality in Stockholm County in Sweden, located just north of Stockholm City Centre. Its seat is located in the town of Solna, which is a part of the Stockholm urban area. Solna is one of the ...

, Sweden. His father is the former Swedish Social Democratic party treasurer Nils-Gösta Damberg and his mother a former district chairwoman of the Finnish Social Democratic Youth Riita-Liisa Damberg. Damberg earned a degree in

public administration Public Administration (a form of governance) or Public Policy and Administration (an academic discipline) is the implementation of public policy, administration of government establishment ( public governance), management of non-profit es ...

from

Stockholm University Stockholm University ( sv, Stockholms universitet) is a public research university in Stockholm, Sweden, founded as a college in 1878, with university status since 1960. With over 33,000 students at four different faculties: law, humanities, ...

in 2000.

Early career

Between 1995 and 1997, Damberg worked as a political assistant to

Minister for Defence {{unsourced, date=February 2021 A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is an often-used name for the part of a government responsible for matters of defence, found in states ...

Thage G. Peterson, and between 1997 and 1999 as political assistant and speechwriter to

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is ...

Göran Persson Hans Göran Persson (; born 20 January 1949) is a Swedish politician who served as Prime Minister of Sweden from 1996 to 2006 and leader of the Swedish Social Democratic Party from 1996 to 2007. Persson was first elected to the Swedish Parliam ...

. Between 1999 and 2003, he was chairman of the Swedish Social Democratic Youth League.

Political career

Damberg joined the

Swedish Social Democratic Youth League The Swedish Social Democratic Youth League ( sv, Sveriges Socialdemokratiska Ungdomsförbund ; SSU) is a branch of the Swedish Social Democratic Party and the Swedish Trade Union Confederation in Sweden. The president has been Lisa Nåbo, since ...

in the late 1980s and served as a member of the board of the organization between 1993 and 1997. He also served as a member of the

municipal council A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, rural counc ...

in Solna Municipality between 1991 and 2002. He is chairman of the Social Democratic party district in Stockholm County since 2004.

Member of the Swedish Parliament, 2002–present

Damberg has served as a

member Member may refer to: * Military jury, referred to as "Members" in military jargon * Element (mathematics), an object that belongs to a mathematical set * In object-oriented programming, a member of a class ** Field (computer science), entries in ...

of the Swedish parliament since 2002, representing the

constituency. In the parliament he served as deputy chairman of the

Committee on Education (Parliamentary) Committee on Education ( sv, utbildningsutskottet) (UbU) is a parliamentary committee in the Swedish Riksdag. The committee's areas of responsibility concern School, Preschool, Higher education, Research on Education, alo ...

and as a member of the War Delegation. He has served as a member of the Committee on Education since 2002. He previously served as a deputy member of the Committee on Defence between 2002 and 2006, and as a deputy member of the Committee on Finance between 2006 and 2010.

Minister of Enterprise

Damberg was appointed Minister for Enterprise on 3 October 2014, serving in the

cabinet Cabinet or The Cabinet may refer to: Furniture * Cabinetry, a box-shaped piece of furniture with doors and/or drawers * Display cabinet, a piece of furniture with one or more transparent glass sheets or transparent polycarbonate sheets * Filin ...

Stefan Löfven Kjell Stefan Löfven (; officially ''Löfvén''; born 21 July 1957) is a Swedish politician who serves as the President of European Socialists since October 2022. He previously served as Prime Minister of Sweden from October 2014 to November 20 ...

. In this capacity, Damberg put forward a 2016 bill stipulating at least 40 percent of board members of listed firms should be women by 2019 at the latest; however, the government later decided to not go ahead with the proposal. Also in 2016, Damberg approved

Vattenfall Vattenfall is a Swedish multinational power company owned by the Swedish State. Beyond Sweden, the company generates power in Denmark, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. The company's name is Swedish for "waterfall", an ...

’s decision to sell its loss-making lignite coal mines and associated power plants in Germany to Czech investor EPH. In 2018, he approved an application from

Nord Stream 2 Nord Stream 2 (German-English mixed expression; german: Nord and en, Stream 2, literally 'North Stream2'; russian: Северный поток — 2) is a natural gas pipeline from Russia to Germany running through the Baltic Sea, financed by ...

to lay two gas pipelines through its economic zone in the Baltic Sea. In August 2018, Damberg visited the crime scene where Karolin Hakim was killed by a gang member. Damberg also attended the

Bilderberg Meeting The Bilderberg meeting (also known as the Bilderberg Group) is an annual off-the-record conference established in 1954 to foster dialogue between Europe and North America. The group's agenda, originally to prevent another world war, is now defi ...

in 2015 in Telfs-Buchen, Austria.

Minister for Home Affairs

Damberg was later appointed

on 21 January 2019 in the second Löfven Cabinet. Early in his tenure, Damberg coordinated the Swedish government’s efforts seeking support from European allies for a new international tribunal to prosecute

Islamic State An Islamic state is a state that has a form of government based on Islamic law (sharia). As a term, it has been used to describe various historical polities and theories of governance in the Islamic world. As a translation of the Arabic ter ...

fighters and military personnel for war crimes perpetrated in Iraq and Syria, modelled on the

International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR; french: Tribunal pénal international pour le Rwanda; rw, Urukiko Mpanabyaha Mpuzamahanga Rwashyiriweho u Rwanda) was an international court established in November 1994 by the United Nation ...

and the

International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) was a body of the United Nations that was established to prosecute the war crimes that had been committed during the Yugoslav Wars and to try their perpetrators. The tribunal ...

. Among others, he visited counterparts in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands to lobby support for the proposal. When Dan Eliasson, the head of Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency (MSB), was reported to have holidayed with family on Gran Canaria in violation of guidelines propagated by his own agency against unnecessary travel amid the

COVID-19 pandemic in Sweden The COVID-19 pandemic in Sweden is part of the pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 () caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (). As of , there have been confirmed cumulative cases and deaths with confirmed COVID-19 in Swed ...

, Damberg asked for his resignation. Also during his time in office, Damberg led efforts in 2021 to give police greater powers to access mobile communications data, including conversations using apps like

Facebook Messenger Messenger is a proprietary instant messaging app and platform developed by Meta Platforms. Originally developed as Facebook Chat in 2008, the company revamped its messaging service in 2010, released standalone iOS and Android apps in 2011, and ...

and

WhatsApp WhatsApp (also called WhatsApp Messenger) is an internationally available freeware, cross-platform, centralized instant messaging (IM) and voice-over-IP (VoIP) service owned by American company Meta Platforms (formerly Facebook). It allows use ...

. That same year, he appointed a commission to look at measures including the expansion of secret, preventative surveillance of suspects, currently only allowed in cases related to national security.

Minister of Finance

Damberg was appointed Minister of Finance on 30 November 2021 after Magdalena Andersson became prime minister.

Other activities

Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) is a multilateral development bank that aims to improve economic and social outcomes in Asia. The bank currently has 105 members, including 14 prospective members from around the world. The br ...

(AIIB), Ex-Officio Member of the Board of Governors (since 2021) *

European Bank for Reconstruction and Development The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is an international financial institution founded in 1991. As a multilateral developmental investment bank, the EBRD uses investment as a tool to build market economies. Initially fo ...

(EBRD), Ex-Officio Member of the Board of Governors (since 2021) *

European Investment Bank The European Investment Bank (EIB) is the European Union's investment bank and is owned by the EU Member States. It is one of the largest supranational lenders in the world. The EIB finances and invests both through equity and debt solution ...

(EIB), Ex-Officio Member of the Board of Governors (since 2021) *

Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency The Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) is an international financial institution which offers political risk insurance and credit enhancement guarantees. These guarantees help investors protect foreign direct investments against ...

(MIGA),

World Bank Group The World Bank Group (WBG) is a family of five international organizations that make leveraged loans to developing countries. It is the largest and best-known development bank in the world and an observer at the United Nations Development Gr ...

, Ex-Officio Member of the Board of Governors (since 2021) * Nordic Investment Bank (NIB), Ex-Officio Chairwoman of the Board of Governors (since 2021) *

World Bank The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and grants to the governments of low- and middle-income countries for the purpose of pursuing capital projects. The World Bank is the collective name for the Inte ...

, Ex-Officio Member of the Board of Governors (since 2021)Board of Governors, as of 5 January 2022

References

External links

Mikael Damberg
at the

Swedish Social Democratic Party The Swedish Social Democratic Party, formally the Swedish Social Democratic Workers' Party ( sv, Sveriges socialdemokratiska arbetareparti ; S/SAP), usually referred to as The Social Democrats ( sv, link=no, Socialdemokraterna ), is a social-de ...

Mikael Damberg
at the Swedish parliament {{DEFAULTSORT:Damberg, Mikael Living people 1971 births People from Solna Municipality Members of the Riksdag from the Social Democrats Stockholm University alumni Swedish people of Finnish descent Members of the Riksdag 2002–2006 Members of the Riksdag 2006–2010 Members of the Riksdag 2010–2014 Members of the Riksdag 2014–2018 Members of the Riksdag 2018–2022 Swedish Ministers for Finance Interior ministers of Sweden Members of the Riksdag 2022–2026