Per Westerberg

Per Westerberg

Per Westerberg with wife Ylva attending the wedding of Princess Madeleine of Sweden and Christopher O'Neill on 8 June 2013.
Speaker of the Riksdag
In office
2 October 2006 – 29 September 2014
Monarch Carl XVI Gustaf
Preceded by Björn von Sydow
Succeeded by Urban Ahlin
Minister for Industry and Trade
In office
4 October 1991 – 7 October 1994
Prime Minister Carl Bildt
Preceded by Rune Molin
Succeeded by Sten Heckscher
Member of the Riksdag
for Södermanland County
In office
1979–2014
Succeeded by Erik Bengtzboe
Personal details
Born (1951-08-02) August 2, 1951
Political party Moderate Party
Spouse(s) Ylwa Söderberg
Children 4
Alma mater Stockholm School of Economics
Occupation Politician
Businessman

Per Erik Gunnar Westerberg (born 2 August 1951) is a Swedish politician who was Speaker of the Riksdag from 2006 to 2014. He was a Member of the Riksdag from 1979 to 2014, its most senior member from 2006 to his resignation (see Father of the House).[1] He was Sweden's Minister for Industry and Trade from 1991 to 1994.

Biography

Professional career

Westerberg was born in Nyköping and graduated from Stockholm School of Economics in 1974. From 1974 to 1977, Westerberg was employed at Saab-Scania in Södertälje. Westerberg was employed at Saab-Scania (the car division) in Nyköping 1979-91,[2] member of the board of AB Karl W. Olsson in 1974, Chairman of Cewe Instrument AB 1984-90[3] and Elwia AB from 1985. He was director of the Enterprise Agency FFV from 1983, member of the Power Management Committee 1978-82, member of the cooperative inquiry 1980-83, member of the inquiry for the recovery of beverage containers etc. 1982-83, and the ownership investigation from 1985. His family has been running a family business for generations.

Political career

Party political career

He was secretary of the Moderate Youth from 1976 to 1978 and political secretary of the Moderate Party from 1978 to 1979. Westerberg became vice chairman of the Moderate Party's county Södermanland in 1977 and was Union Secretary of the Moderate Youth League from 1977 to 78 as well as regional chairman in Nyköping 1979.

Member of the Riksdag

Per Westerberg is an ordinary Member of the Riksdag since 1979 and was previously a deputy in 1977 and 1978. He was alternate member of the Finance Committee 1979-82, the Industry and Trade Committee 1979-82 (member 1982-85) and the Labour Market Committee from 1985.

Per Westerberg was the longest serving member by his departure from the Riksdag. He also served as Alderman of age after the 2006 general election before he was elected Speaker. During the Speaker election in 2006 was, however, the MP who spent the second longest time in the Riksdag (Social Democrat Margareta Israelsson) acting Alderman because Westerberg in this election was himself disqualified.[4]

He was the wealthiest member of the Riksdag, with a personal fortune exceeding 120 million SEK, (around 18 million USD as of May 2014).[5]

Cabinet minister

Westerberg was Minister for Industry and Trade in the Government of Carl Bildt from 1991 to 1994.

Speaker of the Riksdag

In 2003 he was elected as first of the three Vice Speakers of the Riksdag, and on October 2, 2006 he was elected Speaker of the Riksdag by the new liberal-conservative majority, defeating incumbent Björn von Sydow.[6] On October 4, 2010 he was dramatically re-elected as Speaker of the Riksdag, by a 194-153 vote (with 20 votes in favor being from the Sweden Democrats, whose potential decisiveness to his re-election had been viewed as controversial).[7]

Personal life

Per Westerberg lives in Nyköping with his wife, physician Ylwa Westerberg, with whom he has four children. His brother, Lars Westerberg, was CEO of Autoliv.

References

  1. ↑ Per Westerberg on the Riksdag website
  2. ↑ Om Per Westerberg Sveriges Riksdags webbplats
  3. ↑ Även Nationalencyklopedin har fel Svenska Dagbladet, 23 November 2009
  4. ↑ Margareta Israelsson (s) (5 October 2006). "Fru tjänstgörande ålderspresident!". www.s-info.se.
  5. ↑ Karin Johansson (2 October 2006). Sydsvenska Dagbladet Snällposten http://sydsvenskan.se/sverige/article187274.ece. Missing or empty |title= (help); |section= ignored (help)
  6. ↑ Per Westerberg ny talman i riksdagen Sveriges Radio, 2 October 2006
  7. ↑ Per Westerberg fortsätter som talman Svenska Dagbladet, 4 October 2010
Government offices
Preceded by
Rune Molin		 Minister for Industry and Trade
1991–1994 		Succeeded by
Sten Heckscher
Preceded by
Björn von Sydow		 Speaker of the Riksdag
2006–2014 		Succeeded by
Urban Ahlin
Order of precedence
Preceded by
Björn von Sydow
as former Speaker		 Swedish order of precedence Succeeded by
Ola Ullsten
as former Prime Minister
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