Political Career
Lindh was born to Staffan and Nancy Lindh in Enskede, a southeastern suburb of Stockholm, but grew up in Grillby, just outside of Enköping. She became involved in politics at age twelve, when she joined the local branch of the Swedish Social Democratic Youth League, protesting against the Vietnam war as one of her top priorities.
Lindh studied at Uppsala University and graduated as a Candidate of Law (jur. kand.) in 1982. The same year she was elected a member of parliament. In 1984 she became the first female president of the Swedish Social Democratic Youth League. Her six years as president were marked by a strong commitment to international affairs, including in Nicaragua, Vietnam, South Africa and Palestine, and against the arms race marking the end of the cold war.
Lindh served in parliament until 1985, and again from 1998. From 1991 to 1994 she was Commissioner of Culture and Environment and Deputy Mayor of Stockholm. In 1994, following a Social Democratic victory, the new prime minister Ingvar Carlsson made her minister for the environment. One of her resulting legacies was her pioneering work towards European Union legislation on hazardous chemical substances. She also urged for the establishment of a common EU strategy against acidification.
Following the 1998 general election, Göran Persson appointed Lindh to succeed Lena Hjelm-Wallén as minister for foreign affairs in the new government. Having made influential friends across the world during her time leading the Swedish Social Democratic Youth League, Lindh ardently supported international cooperation, both through the United Nations and in the European Union.
A high point in Lindh's career came during the Swedish presidency of the European Union during the first half of 2001. She served as chairman of the Council of the European Union, with responsibility for representing the official foreign policy position of the European Union as a whole. Travelling with the EU foreign and security policy spokesman Javier Solana in Macedonia during the Kosovo/Macedonian crisis, she negotiated an agreement that averted a civil war in the country.
Lindh criticised the 2003 invasion of Iraq, commenting that "a war being fought without support in the statutes of the United Nations is a major failure", but praised the fall of the regime of Saddam Hussein. She also advocated greater respect for international law and human rights in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, criticising Ariel Sharon's government in Israel, but also condemning Palestinian suicide bombings as "atrocities". In a speech on 30 January 2003, she called on Israel to "end the occupation, give up settlements, and agree on a pragmatic solution to Jerusalem" and on the Palestinians to "do everything in their power to stop the terrorist acts, and take legal measures against those responsible" and to "produce reform, for security, but also for democracy and human rights".
In the final weeks of her life, she was intensely involved in the pro-euro campaign preceding the Swedish referendum on the euro, held on 14 September 2003, three days after her death. As one of the most popular pro-euro politicians, she was used as a front person by the campaign, and so her face was on billboards all over Sweden the day she was murdered.
Read more about this topic: Anna Lindh
Famous quotes related to political career:
“He knows nothing and thinks he knows everything. That points clearly to a political career.”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)