Sweden’s new right-wing government said Tuesday it was ditching the country’s pioneering “feminist foreign policy”, launched by the left-wing in 2014, saying the label could be counter-productive.
New Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom announced the move just moments after Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson presented his new government, backed by the far-right Sweden Democrats for the first time.
The “feminist foreign policy” concept has been copied by several countries but also ruffled feathers in others, notably in the Middle East.
Former foreign minister Margot Wallstrom coined the term in 2014, placing gender equality at the heart of Sweden’s international agenda.
Its goals included the promotion of economic emancipation, fighting sexual violence and improving women’s political participation.
“Gender equality is a fundamental value in Sweden and also a fundamental value for this government”, Billstrom, of the conservative Moderates party, told Swedish news agency TT on Tuesday.
“But we’re not going to use the expression ‘feminist foreign policy’ because labels on things have a tendency to cover up the content”, he said.
Various publications on the subject were in the process of being taken down from the foreign ministry’s website on Tuesday.
Billstrom said there would be no major changes to Sweden’s other foreign policy dossiers, such as the country’s historic NATO application process.
In 2015, Wallstrom’s critical remarks on Saudi women’s rights led Saudi Arabia to recall its ambassador to Stockholm.
It is difficult to determine how successful the feminist foreign policy was.
In a document published in 2021, Sweden said that among other things it had helped contribute to new policies on female political representation in Moldova and Somalia, and the inclusion of gender equality issues in Colombia’s 2016 peace deal.
It also contributed to new legislation in some 20 countries, often related to gender-based violence, female genital mutilation and child marriage, it said.
Sweden’s new government on Tuesday also named a 26-year-old as climate minister, the youngest person to lead a ministry in the home nation of teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg.
Romina Pourmokhtari, 26, was until now head of the Liberal party’s youth wing. In 2020, she had proposed a meat tax to help fight climate change.
The young minister has in the past been an outspoken critic of Kristersson’s move to shift his party closer to the anti-immigration and nationalist Sweden Democrats (SD).
“Ulf Kristersson without SD – Absolutely. Ulf Kristersson with SD – No thanks,” she wrote in a post to Twitter in 2020.
Born into a family of Iranian origin in the suburbs of Stockholm, the young woman inherits the climate and environment portfolio, and beats the previous record of 27 years old for youngest minister.
Sweden is home to teen climate activist Thunberg, who launched a massive global movement with millions of youths that has sparked a torrent of debate on the dangers of climate change.
Sweden’s minority coalition government was announced on Friday after Kristersson penned a deal with two smaller parties, the Christian Democrats and the Liberals.
The Sweden Democrats will remain outside the government, but have pledged to back it in parliament to give it a majority in exchange for policy commitments, notably on immigration and crime.
The Sweden Democrats were the big winners in a September 11 general election, emerging as the second-largest party behind the Social Democrats, who have dominated Swedish politics since the 1930s.
The significant influence of the Sweden Democrats over the four-party deal has sparked tensions in the Liberal party, whose support is also essential for Kristersson’s survival.
