Current Prime Minister ("
Statsminister") of
Sweden.
Leader of the
Social Democratic Party of named
country since 1996, when he
replaced Ingvar Carlsson after the
voluntary resignation of the
latter.
Göran Persson was born in Vingåker in 1949. He got involved with politics early in his life and was active in the Social Democratic Party's youth organization SSU from his teens and forward. He took a place in parliament as a representative for the Social Democratic Party in 1979, at the age of 30.
After the Social Democrats won the election in 1994 Persson was appointed Minister of Finance by Prime Minister Ingvar Carlsson, and after Carlsson's unexpected resignation in 1996 Persson was the only one willing to take over his role as party leader (and thereby prime minister); and he was therefore unanimously elected as new party leader at the Social Democratic congress.