Foreign Minister Tobias Billström (M) will leave the government when the Riksdag opens next week.
TV4 Nyhetern’s domestic policy commentator, Per Hermanrud, believes that the prime minister must have known about Billström’s departure for some time and thus had time to prepare to appoint his successor.
Why is Billström resigning now?
It is not clear in his text on social media why he is resigning. But he has a family, and the job as foreign minister involves a huge amount of travel, which of course affects family life. He is leaving politics completely, he says.
In the Prime Minister’s comment on the resignation, Kristersson wrote, among other things, “I believe a lot in walking between politics and business”, so possibly Billström has a job in business waiting for him.
According to information to Expressen, it must be a conflict between Billström and Kristersson that is behind it. But that is denied by Billström’s press department.
How will he be remembered?
He has been active in politics for 25 years and has been a minister for ten. Many certainly remember him as Minister of Migration in the Reinfeldt government. Among other things, the conflict with then Prime Minister Reinfeldt when Billström claimed in 2013 that the volume of immigrants should be reduced.
But the great legacy for Tobias Billström will be that he was the foreign minister who brought Sweden into NATO. It is also NATO that he himself focuses on in his text on social media. Internally in the Moderates, I perceive him to be extremely respected.
Who will be his successor?
The prime minister will present the new government in his cabinet statement on Tuesday. Kristersson must of course have known about Billström’s departure for a while and has had time to prepare. Many people naturally speculate whether Carl Bildt (75) is making a comeback as foreign minister, but I don’t think so.
Possibly Kristersson chooses someone from the existing government, and then Defense Minister Pål Jonsson is well suited. Another name is Henrik Landerholm, whom the Prime Minister appointed as security advisor. Landerholm is a close friend of Kristersson and in the assignment questions about foreign and security policy are central.