Paulina Brandberg took over as minister less than three years ago. Now she resigns, she tells TT.
Brandberg notes that the ministerial job comes with a very high price for private life.
I have a family that I feel I have been away from a lot during this time, ”she says.
In addition, next year is an election year, which would require even more time away from the family, according to her.
I have landed that I do not have the additional gear in me, which actually the Liberals and also Sweden need. Then it is better to let someone else take over, she says.
Have two children
Brandberg has two children, nine and eleven years old. According to her, it is no special event that makes her resign right now, but the decision has emerged.
TT: Is it harder to be a mother and minister than dad and minister?
I would like to think that both mothers and fathers have the same responsibility for their children and that children have as much need for mothers as fathers, so this is obviously a price that you have to pay regardless of whether you are a man or woman in politics, says Brandberg.
There you have to make a balance where your personal limit goes, how much time you are prepared to be away from your family.
TT: Has the ministerial job demanded more than expected?
I think it is difficult to predict what the ministerial job means before going into it. There is a lot of travel and a lot of focus on yourself as a person.
Focus on person
In November, Paulina Brandberg’s phobia for bananas received a lot of media attention.
On a general level, it is clear that there is a lot of focus on one as a person when you are a government minister. And it obviously affects the whole family as well, but it’s not that I leave because of the writing last fall, she says.
Despite her short time as Minister, Brandberg thinks she has achieved much of what she wanted to do.
She entered politics from her job as a prosecutor and has been focused on preventing men’s violence against women, violence in close relationships and honor -related violence and oppression. Brandberg has, among other things, been involved in developing an action program of 132 points, which she considers to be one of her most important efforts.
Brandberg is primarily proud to have been involved and put an increased focus on honor violence and pushed through an increased crime victim perspective in the view of men’s violence against women.
It is important that we in Sweden really hold on equality, that we do not back a millimeter here in Sweden, says Brandberg.
There I think that my successor will be very much up on toe to handle the backlash that we see globally and which we are not spared from in Sweden.