Foreign Minister Tobias Billström is leaving the government.
In a post on X, he writes that he will leave politics altogether.
“What I will do next is still open”, he writes.
“It is with a mixture of sadness and pride that I have today informed the Prime Minister that in connection with the opening of the Riksdag on Tuesday, I am leaving my post as Minister of Foreign Affairs,” he writes in a post on X.
He describes the decision as difficult and something he thought about for a long time.
“At the same time, I want to say that I am happy and very proud of everything we have achieved in these two years. First the obvious; after a long and sometimes challenging process, Sweden is finally in NATO. We have now left over 200 years of freedom of alliance and it would not have been possible without the hard work put in by the government as well as by the officials at the Foreign Ministry and elsewhere in the government office”.
Leaving politics
At the same time, he announces that he will leave politics altogether.
“This means that I am also leaving my seat in the Riksdag. What I will do next is still open. But I am only 50 years old and look forward to contributing and working hard in other contexts where my commitment will come into its own”.
Kristersson: “Performed a deed in Swedish politics like few others”
In a post on Instagram, Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson comments on the defection.
“Tobias Billström has performed a deed in Swedish politics like few others,” he writes.
The Prime Minister describes the last two years, with the war in Ukraine and NATO membership, as extra tiring.
“Tobias belongs to those who can legitimately say that he welcomes those who now see the value of NATO, but that he holds in high esteem those who were for NATO even though they were only met with suspicion”, he writes and continues:
“Tobias has done his military service with flying colours”.
TV4 news is looking for Tobias Billström.