Ibrahim Baylan

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Ibrahim Baylan

Member of the Riksdag
Incumbent
Assumed office 2006
Constituency	Västerbotten County

Born	1972 Tur Abdin, Turkey
Political party	Swedish Social Democratic Party

Ibrahim Baylan (1972 –) is a Swedish social democratic politician. He was Minister for Schools in the cabinet of Göran Persson 2004-2006, but was replaced by Jan Björklund (Liberal People's Party) following the defeat of the social democrats in the Swedish general election, 2006. He is now member of the Riksdag.

Ibrahim Baylan is an ethnic Assyrian, born in Tur Abdin, Turkey, belonging to the Syriac Orthodox Church. His parents left the country with him in the early 1980s. They settled in Botkyrka, a suburb of Stockholm. He studied economics at Umeå University, and was engaged in student politics. In 1997, he became the chair of the Swedish Social Democratic Youth League in Umeå. The same year, he was elected chair of the Umeå Union of Students and also became a member of the municipal school board.

From 2000, Baylan worked as an ombudsman for the Swedish Union of Commercial Salaried Employees. He was on the social democratic ballot for the European Parliament election, 2004, but he was not elected. Later the same year, he was appointed to be Minister for Schools by Prime Minister Göran Persson, thus becoming the first non-European immigrant to become a member of a Swedish government cabinet.

As Minister for Schools he was involved in a controversy about a report from the Swedish National Agency for Education that was withdrawn after criticism from minister Baylan. He was reported to the Swedish Committee on the Constitution and called to a hearing on 12 April 2005.