11 Facts About Peter Hultqvist

Carl Anders Peter Hultqvist was born on 31 December 1958 and is a Swedish politician of the Social Democrats who served as the Minister for Defence in the Swedish Government from 2014 to 2022.

Peter Hultqvist joined the Swedish Social Democratic Youth League in 1973, at age 15.

From 1977, Peter Hultqvist embarked on a career as a journalist, in parallel with his political work.

Peter Hultqvist was employed at two Social Democratic local dailies in Norrland, Dala-Demokraten and Norrlandska Socialdemokraten, as well as at the Social Democratic party's political weekly Aktuellt i Politiken.

Peter Hultqvist remains a columnist in Dala-Demokraten where he sat on the board from 1994 to 2014.

Peter Hultqvist reportedly received some pushback from fellow Social Democrats: "In the party, they think I'm a crank for talking so much about Russia", Hultqvist told Dagens Nyheter's defence correspondent Mikael Holmstrom in 2011.

Peter Hultqvist was appointed minister for defence by Prime Minister Stefan Lofven on 3 October 2014.

Peter Hultqvist brought Sweden into unprecedentedly close military relationship with Finland, negotiating several cooperation agreements and meeting regularly Finnish politicians: "I meet Peter more often than my own mother", Finnish defence minister Jussi Niinisto joked in 2017.

Peter Hultqvist co-created the Swedish-Palestinian Parliamentary Association in 2006 and served as its president until becoming defence minister in 2014.

The challenge to Peter Hultqvist soon proved controversial within the opposition.

Opposition criticism of Peter Hultqvist picked up again in 2018, during a drawn-out debate over Sweden's defence budget, in which the liberal and conservative parties favoured higher spending than the government.