Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallström to step down

Thomas Nilsen, The Independent Barents Observer
Posted: Friday, September 6, 2019 at 10:19 — Last Updated: Monday, September 9, 2019 at 10:39
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Margot Wallström has been Sweden’s Foreign Minister since 2014. (Thomas Nilsen/The Independent Barents Observer)

Margot Wallström, 64, has been Foreign Minister since she took over after Carl Bildt in 2014.

“The time has come for me to spend more time with my husband, my children and my grandchildren,” Wallström writes in a tweet on Friday.

She has notified Prime Minister Stefan Löfven about her wish to leave the government and the post as Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Wallström has been a high-profile minister in Löfven’s government and her resignation comes as a surprise to most. The Prime Minister has not announced any new Foreign Minister.

Margot Wallström made Nordic cooperation one of her priorities. Wallström is seen here with the foreign ministers of Iceland, Finland, Norway and Denmark in Copenhagen, Denmark in 2016. (Thomas Nilsen/The Independent Barents Observer)

On October 3rd, Wallström was supposed to host the Barents Council meeting in Umeå, northern Sweden where her foreign ministers colleagues from Norway, Russia and Finland will participate.