Ulrica Messing (born 31 January 1968 in

Hällefors Hällefors () is a locality and the seat of Hällefors Municipality, Örebro County, Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Ki ...

) is a

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

Social Democratic Social democracy is a political, social, and economic philosophy within socialism that supports political and economic democracy. As a policy regime, it is described by academics as advocating economic and social interventions to promote soci ...

former

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, a ...

. She was Minister for Communications and Regional Policy in the Ministry of Industry, Employment and Communications from 2000 to 2006. From October 2006 to September 2007 she was chairman of 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 ...

Committee for Defence. She resigned from the

on September 18, 2007. She left politics in 2008.

Political career

Messing completed high school in 1987. She began her political career in 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 ...

and was a member of the Municipal Council in

Hofors Municipality Hofors Municipality (''Hofors kommun'') is a municipality in Gävleborg County, east central Sweden. Its seat is in Hofors with 7,400 inhabitants, situated at . The first municipality with the name of ''Hofors'' was broken away from ''Torsåker' ...

from 1989. In 1991 she was elected to the

as a

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

. From 1993 she has been a member of the National Board of the Swedish Social Democratic Party. In 1996

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 not ...

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 Parlia ...

made her a minister. She first served in the Ministry of Labour, from 1998 in the Ministry of Culture, and from 2000 in the Ministry of Industry, Employment and Communications. During her time as Minister for Communications, Ministry of Industry, Employment and Communications from 2000 to 2006 she was in charge of Swedish arms exports. During her tenure the volume of Sweden's arms exports grew to become the ninth largest in the world (2005). It increased from 4,4 billion SEK in 2000 to 8,6 billion SEK in 2006. One arms deal during this time that attracted particular criticism was when the Swedish company SAAB exported airplanes to the

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

military in a deal worth 8,3 billion SEK, about 1,2 billion USD.

Personal life

She is living with multimillionaire Torsten Jansson in

Gothenburg Gothenburg (; abbreviated Gbg; sv, Göteborg ) is the second-largest city in Sweden, fifth-largest in the Nordic countries, and capital of the Västra Götaland County. It is situated by the Kattegat, on the west coast of Sweden, and has ...

. In 2008 Messing opened a design store called Porthouse Interior in Gothenburg.

References

External links

Information page on the Swedish Government web site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Messing, Ulrica 1968 births Living people People from Hällefors Municipality Members of the Riksdag from the Social Democrats Swedish Ministers for Gender Equality Swedish Ministers for Infrastructure Women members of the Riksdag Women government ministers of Sweden Members of the Riksdag 2002–2006 21st-century Swedish women politicians