Cabinet of Göran Persson

Göran Persson's cabinet
51st cabinet of Sweden
Date formed	22 March 1996
Date dissolved	6 October 2006
People and organisations
Head of government	Göran Persson
Head of state	Carl XVI Gustaf
Member party	Social Democrats
Status in legislature	Single-party minority government
History
Election(s)	1998 election 2002 election
Predecessor	Ingvar Carlsson's Third Cabinet
Successor	Reinfeldt's Cabinet

Göran Persson served as Prime Minister of Sweden between 22 March 1996 and 6 October 2006. Persson took over after Ingvar Carlsson, who retired as party leader and Prime Minister. Following the 2006 general election, he and the Persson Cabinet lost power to a centre-right coalition government.

When Ingvar Carlsson in the fall of 1995 declared that he intended to resign as leader for the Social Democratic Party and prime minister of Sweden, deputy prime minister Mona Sahlin was the only one who accepted to run for that position. However, a scandal mainly concerning irresponsible use of her Riksdag credit card and unpaid parking tickets forced her to withdraw her candidacy that same fall. The search continued and Jan Nyman, Ingela Thalén as well as Göran Persson became the new possible candidates, but all of them declined to run when approached by the election board.

After repeatedly declining to candidate Göran Persson suddenly changed his mind, accepted and was elected new leader of the Social Democratic Party and prime minister of Sweden in March 1996. Göran Persson inherited a party with a solid representation in the parliament, in the 1994 election more than 45 percent of the voters had given his predecessor their vote. Still not leading a party with a majority of the seats in the parliament, Göran Persson relied on parliamentary support from the Centre Party when outlining his politics. He launched a series of criticized cut-back programs, defending them in a famous speech to the parliament starting with the expression "One who is in debt is not free".

He did not manage to convince the voters however and the 1998 general election became a huge setback for the Social Democratic Party, now supported by only 36,4 percent of the voters. The Moderate party leader, Carl Bildt, expressed his concerns about Göran Persson not resigning from office, as an outcome of the election. Bildt claimed that the government forming process should start all over with the Speaker of parliament selecting a prime minister based on his or her ability to form a government. He initiated a vote of no confidence, opposed by a majority formed by the Social Democratic Party as well as the Green and Left parties which were to be the new political partners. Eventually Göran Persson formed a one-party government, refusing to give seats to the Left or Green parties.

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