Sweden has a new Minister of Foreign Affairs!

Just before 10 this morning I had to run to a press conference where Prime Minister Göran Persson announced that Mr. Jan Eliasson is Sweden's new Minister of Foreign Affairs. You can read my analysis of this here [in Swedish], but in short I think this was a good solution:

1. Bob Dylan is a good songwriter, and Jan Eliasson has a fantastic track record when it comes to foreign policy. That is just how it is. For example: Jan Eliasson is the chairman of the UN General Assembly right now. And if he were born in Asia he would probably be the next Secretary General of the UN.

2. Carin Jämtin was "up-graded" to the position of Deputy Minister of Foreign Minister and this Eliasson-Jämtin duo is for sure very strong. Jämtin represents a younger generation, never misses a local party meeting, and is tough when she discusses foreign aid to Africa with Paul Wolfowitz. For a social democrat, foreign policy and foreign aid go together, and now Carin is formally Deputy Minister of Foreign Minister, and still in charge of foreign aid. The Moderates (i.e. Swedish Conservatives) wants to lower foreign aid to the poorest with roughly 8 billion SEK. The right-wing "alliance" can never match this duo.

3. I hope and think that Sweden's foreign policy now will become even louder and get even more influence in EU and world politics. This duo is indeed very promising. So, is there a main problem? Yes, being 65 years old, Sweden's new Minister of Foreign Affairs does not help us solving one major question: who will, one day, succeed Göran Persson?

(I will discuss this on SVT24 at 18.10, read more here).