Laila Freivalds

Who is Laila Freivalds?

Laila Ligita Freivalds is a Swedish Social Democratic politician and who served as Minister for Justice from 1988 to 1991 and again from 1994 to 2000, as Minister for Foreign Affairs from 2003 to 2006 and as Deputy Prime Minister of Sweden briefly in 2004.

Freivalds was born in Riga, Reichskommissariat Ostland, during World War II, and escaped to Sweden with her family. She graduated with a Candidate of Law from Uppsala University in 1970 after which she served in the Swedish Court System until 1976. From 1976 onwards she held senior posts at the Swedish Consumer Agency, before being appointed Minister for Justice in 1988. With the exception of the years 1991–1994, when her party was in opposition, she continued to hold that office until she resigned in 2000 over a controversy in which she was criticised, as a private individual, for trying to convert her tenancy into a condominium, circumventing a controversial housing tenure law that she was responsible for introducing and advocating in her public role as Minister of Justice. Since this scandal, her relations with the press have been strained.

After the assassination of Anna Lindh in 2003, Freivalds was asked to succeed her as Minister for Foreign Affairs.