Mona Sahlin
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Mona Ingeborg Sahlin (née Andersson, born 9 March 1957 in Sollefteå) is a Swedish Social Democratic politician. She was during the socialdemocratic government 2006 the Minister for Sustainable Development in the Swedish government. Her areas of responsibility include housing and energy issues.
Mona Sahlin was educated at Nacka Samskola and Södra Latin in Stockholm and completed secondary school in 1977. Thereafter she worked at a private company and later as a trade union representative (Statsanställdas förbund) until 1982.
The political career of Sahlin began in the Swedish Social Democratic Youth League in Nacka, Stockholm County in 1973. She was also vice-chair of the Swedish Federatíon of School Students 1976-77. In 1982 she was elected to the Riksdag as a Member of Parliament, serving until 1996 and again from 2002. In 1990 she became Minister for Labour, in 1992 she left the government and served as chairman of the Riksdag's Committee on the Labour Market and as spokesman for the Social Democrats on labour market issues. From 1992 to 1994 she was party secretary, a post she left to rejoin the government as Minister for Equality Affairs and Deputy Prime Minister.
In 1995, she was forced to resign from the government, after a scandal broke involving her spending government money for private purposes. At a press conference, she referred to buying an occasional bar of Toblerone; this became the enduring image of the scandal, and was referred to by The Economist as "the most expensive bar of chocolate she ever ate".
She returned to national politics in 1998, when she was appointed to the government by Prime Minister Göran Persson, first in the Ministry for Industry, Employment and Communication, from 2002 as Minister for Democracy and Integration issues and from 2004 as Minister for Sustainable Development.
