22 Facts About Mona Sahlin

Mona Sahlin has held ministerial posts in the Swedish government from 1990 to 1991, from 1994 to 1995 and from 1998 to 2006.

Mona Sahlin was elected as leader of the Social Democratic Party on 17 March 2007, succeeding Goran Persson who resigned as leader following the defeat in the 2006 general election.

Mona Sahlin is the first female leader of the Swedish Social Democratic Party and became in 2011 the first since Claes Tholin in 1907 to leave that position without having served as Prime Minister of Sweden.

In 1964, at the age of seven, Mona Sahlin founded the Swedish "Barbie Club".

Mona Sahlin performed as one of the back up singers to Jan Malmsjo, in the selection for the song to represent Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest 1969.

Mona Sahlin was educated at Nacka Samskola and Sodra Latin in Stockholm and completed secondary school in 1977.

At age 13, Mona Sahlin joined the Swedish support group for the Viet Cong.

In 1990, she became Minister for Employment, but after the Social Democrats lost power in the 1991 election, Mona Sahlin began to serve as chairman of the Riksdag's Committee on the Labour Market and as spokesman for the Social Democrats on labour market issues.

Mona Sahlin left her position to rejoin the government as Minister for Gender Equality and Deputy Prime Minister, when the Social Democrats regained power in the 1994 election.

Mona Sahlin further confessed to having failed to pay 19 parking tickets and several bills for her children's day care on time.

Mona Sahlin eventually paid the bills to the Treasury.

From 1996 to 1997, Mona Sahlin worked as a self-employed owner of a small company and as a television reporter.

Mona Sahlin returned to national politics in 1998 when then Prime Minister Goran Persson appointed her as Minister without Portfolio.

Mona Sahlin served first in the Ministry of Industry, Employment and Communication from 1998 to 2002, then from 2002 to 2004 in the Ministry of Justice as the "Minister for Democracy and Integration", and from 2004 to 2006 in the Ministry of Sustainable Development as the "Minister for Sustainable Development".

Mona Sahlin was mentioned as a possible successor, but not considered to be the most likely candidate.

Mona Sahlin is often described as a scion of the party's more moderate members, and a number of left-wing party members criticised her candidacy for party leader.

Mona Sahlin led the Social Democratic Party in the election of September 2010 where she failed to unseat Fredrik Reinfeldt as Prime Minister.

Mona Sahlin resigned as party leader on 25 March 2011, becoming the second Social Democratic Party leader to have resigned without having served as prime minister.

On 5 May 2016, Mona Sahlin stepped down from her position as Sweden's national coordinator against violence-embracing extremism, due to revelations by the newspaper Expressen that she had lied about her bodyguard's salary, in order to help him secure a mortgage.

The media mentioned similarities to the so-called Toblerone case of the 1990s when Mona Sahlin was caught using her government credit card to pay for private expenses and then dodging the issue when confronted.

In November 2017, Mona Sahlin was found guilty of tax evasion.

Mona Sahlin has a child named Ann-Sofie from a previous relationship with a man named David Pena.