Stefan Löfven left the spotlight when he quit as prime minister about two years ago. In Nyhetsmorgon, he talks about life after politics, where he spent a lot of time spending time with his wife Ulla Löfven.
– I think it’s good that I get more time with Ulla. We’re going to go up and see Modo and play hockey. We will listen to Lasse Winnerbäck at Hägglunds Arena, he says.
– At the same time, I have a number of very interesting assignments that make life feel exciting and stimulating, he continues.
“Missing the information”
When asked if Stefan Löfven misses politics, he answers:
– I miss the information that I know the Prime Minister receives in this situation. It was actually after the invasion of Ukraine. Then I remember that I said that I know what information and situation the Prime Minister is in.
– It is difficult, but I also know what high-class information she receives, Magdalena Andersson. I can miss that sometimes, says Stefan Löfven.
Löfven about the state of the world
Today, Stefan Löfven is involved in democracy issues as, among other things, chairman of the board of Sipri, Stockholm’s international peace research institute. Sipri’s mission is to study armed conflicts and provide the right facts to decision-makers, researchers and the media.
Next year around 80 countries go to the polls – only 43 of them have free elections, according to the EIU’s Democracy Index. And two major armed conflicts are also raging in our vicinity, where misinformation blocks the polarization.
Something that worries Stefan Löfven.
– There is no doubt that democracy is in decline. We see a rearmament in the world.
– But nothing is a given. It must be possible to turn things around, he adds.
A recent example of misinformation is when Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson stumbles on words and accidentally says the wrong thing at an afterwork in Gothenburg. A video clip of the misstatement has been mistranslated and spread on social media worldwide.
– It is very serious that you deliberately run a lie, says Löfven.
– I am worried about that development. The tone of the debate is the same. You absorb something and then it is pushed as a truth.