Lars Leijonborg
| Lars Leijonborg | |
|---|---|
.jpg) |
|
| Minister for Higher Education and Research | |
|
In office 12 September 2007 – 17 June 2009 |
|
| Prime Minister | Fredrik Reinfeldt |
| Preceded by | Office established |
| Succeeded by | Tobias Krantz |
| Minister for Education | |
|
In office 6 October 2006 – 12 September 2007 |
|
| Prime Minister | Fredrik Reinfeldt |
| Preceded by | Leif Pagrotsky |
| Succeeded by | Jan Björklund |
| Leader of the Liberal People's Party | |
|
In office 15 March 1997 – 7 September 2007 |
|
| Preceded by | Maria Leissner |
| Succeeded by | Jan Björklund |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
21 November 1949 Täby, |
| Political party | Liberal People's Party |
| Religion | Mission Covenant Church of Sweden |
Lars Erik Ansgar Leijonborg (born 21 November 1949) is a Swedish politician, Minister for Higher Education and Research 2006-2009 and Head of the Ministry of Education and Research 2006-2007. During a ten-year period from 1997 to 2007, he served as chairman of the Liberal People's Party (Swedish: Folkpartiet liberalerna).
He announced on 11 June 2009 that he would be leaving the Cabinet of Fredrik Reinfeldt as soon as a successor was appointed. He was replaced by Tobias Krantz on 17 June 2009.
Although born in Täby, , Lars Leijonborg grew up in Solna north of . In 1971 he became the leader of the Liberal Youth of Sweden (Liberala ungdomsförbundet), the Liberal Party's youth organisation. In 1974 he graduated from his studies in social work at . He was party secretary from 1980 to 1983 and editor-in-chief for the party magazine NU from 1983 to 1984. After a brief period as a management consultant, he was elected a member of the Riksdag (parliament) in 1985. In 1990 he became the party's second deputy chairman. Succeeding Maria Leissner, on 15 March 1997 he was unanimously elected chairman of the party.
Initially, voters were cold to Leijonborg, his appearance often described as tense. In the 1998 parliamentary elections, Folkpartiet received 4.7% of the vote, just above the 4% threshold for parliamentary representation. It was the worst election result the party had seen since World War I. Even within the party, Leijonborg's position was questioned by many. The youth organisation he once headed openly called for his resignation. Despite the internal opposition, he managed to hold on to his position. And when, in the campaign before the 2002 parliamentary elections, the party suddenly surged after launching a proposal on making a Swedish language test one of the requirements for a naturalized Swedish citizenship, Leijonborg was nicknamed "the Lion King" (Leijonkungen) in the tabloids. The election result, 13.3%, was a success for the party and for Leijonborg personally, but since the party's centre-right partners failed to gain ground, the Social Democrats could remain in government. In 2006 the party was a part of the Alliance for Sweden, which won the election, although after a scandal where members of the party had hacked into a rival party's computer network, the Liberal Party lost almost six percentage points compared to the 2002 election, getting a total of 7,5% of the votes.
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