Sweden gives the youngest minister ever a climate manual
The new government in Sweden has appointed a 26-year-old Romina Pourmokhtari as climate minister, the youngest person to lead a ministry in climate activist Greta Thunberg’s home.
The nomination was among the cabinet members presented by newly elected Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, who leads a right-wing coalition supported by the far-right Sweden Democrats.
Pourmokhtari was the head of the Liberal Party’s youth wing and has not been known to have climate as his political profile.
Born into a family of Iranian origin in the suburbs of Stockholm, she breaks the record of the previous youngest minister, who was 27.
The minister has previously been an outspoken critic of Kristersson’s investment in aligning his party more closely with the Sweden Democrats (SD).
“Ulf Kristersson without SD – Absolutely. Ulf Kristersson with SD – No thanks,” she wrote in a post on Twitter in 2020.
Sweden’s coalition government was announced on Friday after Kristersson agreed a deal with his partners and the nationalist and anti-immigration Sweden Democrats, who pledged to support the government in exchange for policy commitments, particularly on immigration and crime.
The Sweden Democrats’ significant influence over the four-party agreement has raised tensions within the Liberals, whose support is also crucial for Kristersson’s survival.
Introducing the cabinet, Kristersson also announced the creation of a new “civil defense” ministerial post as the country faces tensions with Russia.
The Sweden Democrats were the big winners in the election and emerged as the second largest party, only after the Social Democrats, who have dominated Swedish politics since the 1930s.