Åsa Elisabeth Romson (born 22 March 1972) is a Swedish

politician A politician is a person who participates in Public policy, policy-making processes, usually holding an elective position in government. Politicians represent the people, make decisions, and influence the formulation of public policy. The roles ...

who was the Minister for the Environment and ceremonial Deputy Prime Minister of Sweden in the

Swedish Government The Government of the Kingdom of Sweden () is the national cabinet of Sweden, and the country's executive authority. The Government consists of the Prime Minister and their cabinet ministers (). The Government is responsible for its actions ...

from 2014 to 2016. She is a member of the

Green Party A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as environmentalism and social justice. Green party platforms typically embrace Social democracy, social democratic economic policies and fo ...

and served as one of its spokespersons along with Gustav Fridolin between 2011 and 2016. In 2012, Romson completed a doctorate in environmental law at

Stockholm University Stockholm University (SU) () is a public university, 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, social ...

Political career

In the late 1990s, she was a member of the

and the Young Greens of Sweden. Between 2002 and 2010, she was a member of the city council in

Stockholm Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...

. Since the 2010 election she has been a spokesperson for environmental and climate policy. She has been 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 The Riksdag ( , ; also or , ) is the parliament and the supreme decision-making body of the Kingdom of Sweden. Since 1971, the Riksdag has been a unicameral parliament with 349 members (), elected proportionally and serving, since 1994, f ...

since the 2010 election. On 29 March 2011, she was nominated as one of the candidates to be the Green Party's new spokesperson, together with Gustav Fridolin. They were elected on 21 May 2011. She started serving as the Minister for the Environment and Deputy Prime Minister of Sweden in the Löfven Cabinet. Romson announced her intention in May 2016 to resign from the Government, following the Green Party's decision not to nominate her for the party leadership for another term.

Controversies

In October 2014, Romson used an outlawed type of paint on the bottom of the boat she lives on. She claimed ignorance on both counts. On 19 April 2016, she described the

September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into ...

on the World Trade Center as "olycka" (meaning "accident", "disaster" or "misfortune" depending on context). She explained that the disaster she was referring to in that context (the Swedish word "olycka" can mean accident or disaster) was that the topic of integration had become inflamed as a result of the attack.

References

External links

Åsa Romson's blog

Åsa Romson
at the

, -

Alongside:
Gustav Fridolin , - , -

Serving with:
'' Margot Wallström'' , - , - , - 1972 births Living people Members of the Riksdag from the Green Party Ministers for the environment of Sweden Deputy prime ministers of Sweden 21st-century Swedish women politicians Women government ministers of Sweden Women members of the Riksdag People from Salem Municipality {{Sweden-politician-stub