Ann-Sofie_Hermansson

Ann-Sofie Hermansson

Ann-Sofie Hermansson

Swedish politician

Britt Ann-Sofie Hermansson (born 2 October 1964) is a Swedish politician of the Social Democrats. She was chairman (Mayor) of the Gothenburg Municipality executive board from 18 January 2016 to 22 november 2018.[1]

Quick Facts Mayor of Gothenburg, Preceded by ...

Career

Early career

Born on the island of Tjörn in 1964, Hermansson began working at Volvo Cars at the age of 19, working in parts transport. There, she joined the metalworkers’ union and the Social Democrats’ youth wing.

She would go on to serve as official at Swedish Trade Union Confederation from 1996 to 2002 before serving as political secretary to the Gothenburg Municipality executive board from 2003 to 2008 and as ombudsman at the European Parliament to the Social Democrats political group from 2012 to 2016.[2]

Mayor of Göteborg

In 2016, she was elected mayor of Gothenburg Municipality.[3] As mayor, she oversaw the launch of the Equal Gothenburg campaign, stating that "For many years we have had projects to fix inequality. We’d take some money, we’d have a project in the suburbs, and then the money ends and the project stops. The idea of Equal Gothenburg is no more small projects: we should think about equality all the time when we plan."[4]

In March 2018 the Gothenburg City Council blocked a planned showing and panel discussion of the film Burka Songs. In the aftermath of the debate, Hermansson wrote a series of blog posts where she accused two of the scheduled panel members[who?] of being undemocratic extremists who defended terrorists. She was then sued for libel over the blog posts. In February 2020, she was acquitted of the charges, with the court ruling that her posts were justifiable under freedom of speech.[5]

Post-politics

After failing to be re-elected, she left politics, using her heavy-goods-vehicle driving licence to work as a garbage collector for Renova.[6]

References

  1. [1]
    Larsson, Arne (2016-01-18). "Ann-Sofie Hermansson vald till S-gruppledare" (in Swedish). Göteborgs-Posten. Retrieved 2016-01-18.
  2. [2]
    LinkedIn: Ann-Sofie Hermansson 2016-05-18
  3. [3]
    Lindberg, Rafaela (2018-08-30). "The Home of Volvo Is Turning Its Back on Swedish Establishment". Bloomberg.
  4. [4]
    Crouch, David (2017-07-17). "The new 'people's home': how Sweden is waging war on inequality". The Guardian.
  5. [5]
    Engberg, Ulla (2020-02-11). "Former Gothenburg mayor acquitted in "extremism" libel case". Sveriges Radio.
  6. [6]
    Duxbury, Charles (2021-05-10). "She left politics to drive a garbage truck". Politico.
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