Sweden: Foreign Minister resigns – Who is Tobias Bilstrom

With a long post on social media, Tobias Bilstrom, announced he intends to declare his resignation next week. The 50-year-old politician said he would leave politics, but has not decided what he is dealing with next. Tobias Bilstrom was a member of the moderate conservative Party and served as Swedish Foreign Minister since October 2022. His announcement: “With a mixture of sorrow and pride I informed the Prime Minister today that I will leave the position of Foreign Minister with the opening of the House’s work next week,” Bilstrom wrote in his personal account in “X”. And he added: “It was not an easy decision but something I thought and worked on for a long time. I have had many different roles in politics over the past 25 years, of which the 10 years as minister, first as Minister of Immigration in the coalition government and now as Minister of Foreign Affairs. In the years they intervened, I was also team leader in Riksdag and deputy president. 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. Now we have left over 200 years unbound and it would not have been possible without the hard work paid by the government as well as the Foreign Ministry officials and elsewhere in the government office. The importance to the safety of Sweden and our friends from Scandinavia – Baltic cannot be overestimated”. Bilstrom then reported: We are in the most serious situation of security policy since World War II and this government has carried out a historic restructuring of Swedish security policy. We now belong to the core of the countries supporting Ukraine and have also promoted a long-term policy to tackle Russian expansion of power. The situation in the Middle East is also serious and Sweden is fighting, along with the EU, the US and other countries, to stabilise the situation. In the long term, a two-state solution is the only logical one. Therefore, tasks for my successor are not lacking, to whom I wish good luck.” Finally he wrote: “From my point of view, I will now leave politics completely. That means I’m leaving my place in Riksdag too. What I’ll do next is still open. But I am only 50 years old and I look forward to contributing and working hard in other contexts where my commitment comes in itself. In conclusion, I would like to thank the Prime Minister for the confidence he showed me to be team leader and member of the party leadership for 5 years and then Minister of Foreign Affairs for 2 years.” Det är med en blanning av vemod och stolthet som jag idag har meddelat statsministern att jag i samband med riksdagens öppnande på tisdag lämnar posten som utrikesminister. Det har into varit ett enkelt beslut men något som jag har tänkt på och process under en tid. Jag har… — Tobias Billström (@TobiasBillstrom) Who is Tobias Bilstrom Tobias Lennart Billström was born on 27 December 1973 and is a Swedish politician of the Moderate Party. He was Minister of Immigration and Asylum Policy from 2006 to 2014 and briefly as Minister of Employment in 2010 at the cabinet of Fredrik Reinfeldt. At the same time he served as First Vice President of Riksdag from 2014 to 2017. He has a master’s degree in Philosophy and Istroia from the University of Cambridge and in History from the University of Lund. He joined Riksdag in the 2002 Swedish election and then became deputy in the Education Committee, the Employment Committee and the Cultural Committee. In 2003 he became a member of the Education Committee where he took special responsibility for matters relating to higher education and research. His controversial statements: In an interview with illegal immigrants hiding in Sweden on 18 March 2013, Billström had stated that: “Sometimes we get the impression that the person who is hidden lives with a beautiful blonde Swede in her fifty or sixty who wants to help. But that’s not true. The vast majority of hidden illegal immigrants live with their compatriots who are not blond and blue-eyed.” The statement was severely criticised by both opposition parties as well as the other government parties of the Alliance coalition government. The leader of the Modern Youth Association, the Modern Party Youth Association, Eric Bengjboe also criticized the statement and called on Bilstrom to apologize and think about what he said. Some even asked Billström to resign from the position of Minister for Immigration and Political Asylum. Right-wing Swedish Democratic leader Jimmie Åkesson welcomed Billström’s statement and said “he was on the right track”. Early in the afternoon of the same day, Billström officially apologized for his statement and said that his words came out the wrong way and that what he said was not what he really meant. Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt welcomed Billström’s apology. In response to the attacks on Gaza by Israel following the Hamas attacks on 7 October 2023, Billström said Israel’s response was proportional. This was heavily criticized by ActionAid and Amnesty. An official complaint was filed by the left party of Sweden.