Kent Härstedt

Kent Härstedt
Kent Härstedt in January 2011.
Member of the Riksdag
Incumbent
Assumed office
1998
Constituency Skåne County west
Personal details
Born 29 January 1965
Helsingborg, Sweden
Political party Swedish Social Democratic Party
Children son Joel
Residence Helsingborg, Sweden
Occupation writer, journalist
Website Kent Härstedt

Kent Härstedt (born 29 January 1965 in Helsingborg) is a Swedish social democratic politician, member of the Riksdag since the Swedish general election, 1998.[1]

Actively interested in politics since the age of 16, he was elected to the municipal council of Helsingborg, where he remained for six years. He worked as political adviser to vice foreign minister Pierre Schori between 1994 and 1996, and as a freelance writer for amongst others Svenska Dagbladet, Helsingborgs Dagblad and Arbetarebladet. In 1998 he was elected to the Riksdag and still remains there. In 2004 and 2005, he was also alcohol commissioner for the Swedish government. Härstedt is the elected vice President of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly 2014–2017.[2] At the election to Ukraine's parliament on October 26, 2014, Härstedt was the special coordinator for the OSCE observer mission.[3]

Between 1999 and 2005, he was the chairman of the Swedish branch of UNICEF.[2]

Härstedt is a survivor of the MS Estonia disaster in 1994.[4]

Report as alcohol commissioner

In March 2005, Härstedt – alcohol commissioner on behalf of the Swedish government – in his report Gränslös utmaning – alkoholpolitik i ny tid proposed that the wine- and beer-taxes should be lowered by 30%, and that more resources should be allocated to information and other preventive measures.[5] The report and Härstedt's proposals provoked an angry reaction from Sweden's leading temperance organization, IOGT-NTO and its chairman Sven-Olov Carlsson, who claimed that the only effect of lowering taxes was that people would drink more, and that while preventive measures are important they have never had an effect comparable to high prices.[6]

References

  1. ↑ "Riksdagen: Kent Härstedt (s)" (in Swedish). Retrieved 2007-02-16.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Kent Härstedt: Personligt / Om mig" (in Swedish). Retrieved 2007-02-16.
  3. ↑ OSCE Special Co-ordinator visits Kyiv, Kharkiv, Luhansk oblasts ahead of Ukraine election, OSCE, October 17, 2014.
  4. ↑ Karin Thunberg (2004-09-26). "Tio år efter Estonia" (in Swedish). Svenska Dagbladet. Retrieved 2008-02-24.
  5. ↑ Staffan Kihlström (2005-03-16). "Förslag sänka öl- och vinskatten med 30 procent" (in Swedish). Dagens Nyheter. Retrieved 2007-02-16.
  6. ↑ "Farligt spel, Härstedt" (in Swedish). IOGT-NTO. 2005-03-16. Retrieved 2007-02-16.

External links