Jacob Christensen

If this story from Sveriges Radio is to be believed – an why not: It is after all an interview with Lars Leijonborg, the leader of the Liberal Party – Carl Bildt only became Foreign Minister after Fredrik Reinfeldt had offered the portfolio to the other three party leaders in succession.

There are many reasons why a party leader wouldn’t want to be Foreign Minister in a coalition government – the post demands a lot of travelling while you ideally should also take care of negotiations in the government and business in your party. Finally, foreign policy usually isn’t a policy area where you can make points in domestic policy.

On the other hand, Reinfeldt would still have had the same alternative as Poul Nyrup Rasmussen (Denmark, 1993), Anders Fogh Rasmussen (Denmark, 2001) or Angela Merkel (Germany, 2005): Give the Foreign Office to one of the junior partners who would then fill the post with either a former leader (Niels Helveg Petersen (1993), Per Stig Møller (2001)) or a dependable party worker (Frank-Walther Steinmeier (2005)).

If we look at Danish history, not all leaders of junior parties have opted for the Foreign Office: P. Munch (1929-1940), Ole Bjørn Kraft (1950-1953), Poul Hartling (1968-1971) and Henning Christophersen (1978-1979) did, while Bertel Dahlgaard (Economy, 1957-61), Jørgen Jørgensen (Education, 1957-1961), Viggo Starcke (Consultative, 1957-1960), Keld Philip (Finance, later Economy, 1960-1964), Henning Christophersen (Finance, 1982-1984), Mimi Jakobsen (Culture 1982-1986, Social Affairs 1986-88, Economic Coordination 1993-1994, Commerce, 1994-1996), Christian Christensen (Environment, 1982-1988), Niels Helveg Petersen (Economy, 1988-1990), Marianne Jelved (Economy, 1993-2001), Jann Sjursen (Energy, 1993-1994) and Bendt Bendtsen (Economy and Commerce, 2001-today) chose “domestic” portfolios.

Uffe Ellemann-Jensen served as Foreign Minister during all of Poul Schüter’s governments but only became leader of the Liberal Party in 1984 after Henning Christophersen left to become European Commissioner.

Ellemann-Jensen could probably have chosen to swap Foreign Affairs for Finance or Economy had he wanted to. On the other hand, Ellemann-Jensen used foreign and especially European policy to profile the Liberal Party in domestic politics during the 1980s and 1990s.

If we take previous Swedish coalitions since 1936 as our point of departure, the leaders of junior partners have as a rule avoided the Foreign Office: Pehrsson-Bramstorp (1936-1939) chose Agriculture, Hedlund (1951-1957) Interior (this means local government in Scandinavia, not police and judiciary), Bohman (1976-78 and 1979-81) Economy and Ahlmark (1976-1978) Labour.

In Carl Bildt’s four-party coalition, Westerberg opted for Social Affairs, Johansson for Environment and Svensson Overseas Development. The coalitions between the Social Democrats and the Agrarian Party (today’s Centre Party) had Social Democratic Foreign Ministers, while the Conservative Margaretha af Ugglas was Foreign Minister between 1991 and 1994

That leaves Ola Ullsten who took over the leadership of the Liberal Party in 1978 when Per Ahlmark unexpectedly quit. In Fälldin’s first government, Ullsten was Minister for Overseas Development (!) and from 1977 Immigration while Karin Söder of the Centre Party held the Foreign Office.

In Fälldin’s second and third governments, Ullsten was promoted to the Foreign Office but according to Wikipedia, there were complaints from within the Liberal Party that Ullsten’s portfolio was too insignificant politically and that he should have opted for the Social Affairs portfolio instead.

Norwegian and Finnish evidence, anyone?

In Denmark, Centrum-Demokraterne is a special case as Erhard Jakobsen did not join the government in 1982. He was a Minister w.o. Portfolio 1987-1988. I have listed Mimi Jakobsen as the highest-ranking minister from CD.

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