Beatrice Ask

Beatrice Ask
Minister for Justice
In office
6 October 2006 – 3 October 2014
Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt
Preceded by Thomas Bodström
Succeeded by Morgan Johansson
Minister for Schools
In office
4 October 1991 – 7 October 1994
Prime Minister Carl Bildt
Preceded by Göran Persson
Succeeded by Ylva Johansson
Member of the Swedish Riksdag
for Stockholm Municipality
Incumbent
Assumed office
4 October 1988
Personal details
Born Eva Carin Beatrice Ask
20 April 1956
Sveg, Sweden
Political party Moderate Party
Occupation Politician
Religion Church of Sweden

Eva Carin Beatrice Ask (born 20 April 1956) is a Swedish politician and a member of the Moderate Party. She has been a member of the Swedish Riksdag for Stockholm Municipality since 1988. She served as Minister for Schools from 1991 to 1994 and as Minister for Justice from 2006 to 2014.

Biography

Ask was born in Sveg, Jämtland County. She earned a high school diploma in Akron, Ohio, United States, in 1974, and finished her upper secondary school in Sweden in 1976.[1] From 1978 to 1979 she studied international economics at Uppsala University but never graduated.[1] Instead she began working for the Moderate Party and the Moderate Youth League, before being elected the first female chairman of the youth league in 1984. She was re-elected in 1986 and served a second term until 1988, when she was elected city commissioner with responsibility for schools (Swedish: skolborgarråd) in the city council of Stockholm.

Following the 1991 election, after which Carl Bildt became Prime Minister, Ask was appointed Minister for Schools and Adult Education in the new cabinet. Together with Per Unckel, Minister for Education, she took part in shaking the very foundation of the Swedish education system. Among other things, education vouchers were introduced which allowed children to choose independent schools without paying any fees.

Since the loss in the 1994 election, Ask has served as party spokesman of several issues. From 1994 to 2006 she was member of the Swedish parliament.

Following the 2006 election, after which Fredrik Reinfeldt became Prime Minister, Ask was appointed Minister for Justice in the new cabinet. Historically, she is one of very few non-jurists to hold the post of Minister for Justice in Sweden.

She has been criticized by newspapers and fellow politicians in her role as a Minister of Justice,[2][3] most notably for her part in the change in legislation regulating the National Defence Radio Establishment, as well as her proposal to send lavender-colored envelopes to suspected purchasers of sexual services, with the head of the Swedish Bar Association Anne Ramberg calling the latter "an unacceptable view of human beings. It is a return to medieval times".[4] After the news of the Swedish police controlling the citizenships of fare evaders in the Stockholm subway, Ask supported the REVA project and continuing in-country foreigner checks.[5] An open letter to the minister describing the more recent public uproar has received worldwide attention and was carried in the New York times,[6] written in opposition of police actions in Stockholm.

In January 2014, she shared a link on facebook to a satirical website article about marijuana killing 37 people in the US following the legalization in the state of Colorado, and tied it to her anti-drug stand as a youth politician. Her post was ridiculed and criticized after it spread on social media.[7] Her press secretary later told the Aftonbladet newspaper that the minister had all the time been aware that the article was satirical.[8]

However, at the end of her time in office as Minister for Justice, she was the fourth longest-serving person to the hold the office out of 41 individuals. She was second deputy leader of the Moderate Party from 2009 to 2015.

Personal life

Ask was formerly in a relationship with Moderate Party politician Christer G. Wennerholm, with whom she has one child. She has a second child from another relationship.[1]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 "Beatrice Ask - CV". Government Offices of Sweden. 24 January 2008. Archived from the original on 2 December 2008. Retrieved 17 December 2008.
  2. ↑ "Ask får KD-kritik för Reva-projektet" (in Swedish). 7 March 2013. Retrieved 12 December 2014./
  3. ↑ "Justitieministern öppnar för total övervakning" (in Swedish). 12 December 2011. Retrieved 12 December 2014./
  4. ↑ "Ask vill att sexköpare skäms öppet" (in Swedish). 19 March 2010. Retrieved 11 December 2014./
  5. ↑ "Riksdagen i debatt om polisens id-kontroller" (in Swedish). 19 April 2013. Retrieved 12 December 2014./
  6. ↑ http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/21/opinion/sunday/swedens-closet-racists.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1&ref=opinion
  7. ↑ "Sweden's Justice Minister Beatrice Ask Ridiculed Over Spoof Marijuana Article". 7 January 2014. Retrieved 12 December 2014.
  8. ↑ "'Hitler furious' at Swedish minister's satire mishap". Sweden's News in English. 7 January 2014. Retrieved 7 January 2014.

External links

Party political offices
Preceded by
Gunnar Hökmark		 Chairman of the Moderate Youth League
1984–1988 		Succeeded by
Ulf Kristersson
Political offices
Preceded by
Göran Persson		 Minister for Schools
1991–1994 		Succeeded by
Ylva Johansson
Preceded by
Thomas Bodström		 Minister for Justice
2006–2014 		Succeeded by
Morgan Johansson