Early beginnings

In the 1988 general elections Johansson was elected as a member of the Riksdag for the Left Party – Communists (VPK). She later left the party and joined the Social Democrats.

From 1992 to 1994 Johansson worked as a teacher, until Prime Minister Ingvar Carlsson made her Minister for Schools in his government. In 1998, she and the then Minister for Finance Erik Åsbrink announced their wish to "publicly confirm that we are in love" and their intention to separate from their respective partners. Soon afterwards, Johansson left the government. The following years, she worked in the private sector.

In 2004, Prime Minister Göran Persson appointed Johansson to the government in a new position, as Minister for Health and Elderly Care, succeeding Lars Engqvist.^[2]

Minister for Employment, 2014–2019

From 2014, Johansson served as Minister for Employment in the government of Prime Minister Stefan Löfven. During her time in office, she worked to tighten labor immigration laws.^[2]

In the 2013 Social Democrat party congress, the goal was set that Sweden should have the lowest rate of unemployment in the EU. While the Social Democrats and Green Party were in power, unemployment decreased more in other EU countries than Sweden and by 2019, Sweden's place in the unemployment ranking slipped to 18 with an unemployment rate of 6.2%, where the first spot was occupied by Czech Republic at 1.7%.^[3]

Member of the European Commission, 2019–present

Following the 2019 European elections, Löfven nominated Johansson as Sweden's candidate for the post of European Commissioner.^[4][5]

During a question & answer session in October 2019 in the European Parliament, Johansson was asked on whether Swedish policy on gang crime and migration would be exported to the EU level. Johansson responded that she was "proud that Sweden received so many refugees".^[6][7]

In early March 2020, Johansson was appointed by President Ursula von der Leyen to serve on a special task force to coordinate the European Union's response to the COVID-19 pandemic.^{[8][needs update]}

In September 2023, more than 120 boats carrying around 7,000 migrants from Africa arrived on the Italian island of Lampedusa in the span of 24 hours.^[9] Johansson said that "We are seeing a really challenging situation in Lampedusa. This is a European matter that needs a European response."^[10]

Surveillance of private chat communication

In May 2022, Johansson proposed an EU "Child Sexual Abuse Regulation" introducing an obligation for companies to monitor all private chat communication, including pictures, for possible hints at child abuse and report any findings to the authorities. The proposed legislation faced widespread criticism and was described as introducing mass surveillance.^[13] The scientific service of the German Bundestag evaluated the proposal and concluded it was illegal due to necessitating blanket surveillance of private communication, the impossibility to differentiate legal and illegal communication and harmful effects on communication by and between children.^[14] Johansson defended her proposal to scan all electronic chats as not introducing surveillance, which was - among other claims - described as untrue or at least misleading.^[15] Research by several newspapers led to allegations of questionable connections between Johansson and her staff and companies that would benefit financially from her proposal.^[16] Johansson rejected the accusations as being untrue, true but not illegal and as not even being accusations.^[17] Her claim to have given equal data protection protection organizations the same access as to the backers of her proposal was rejected as untrue by several organizations and members of the EU parliament.^[18] Johansson reacted to growing rejection of her proposal by ordering commercial advertisement on Twitter^[19] paid for with EU funds.^[20] The advertisement was criticized as being misleading and illegal according to the EU's rules for targeted advertisement.^[21]