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Baylan and Östros rise to party leadership

Schools minister Ibrahim Baylan, trade minister Thomas Östros and the new chairman of union IF Metall, Stefan Löfven, have been promoted to the leadership of Sweden's Social Democratic Party.

The three were voted in unanimously without debate at the party congress on Tuesday. They succeed Gothenburg council leader Göran Johansson, former Metall leader Göran Johnsson, and foreign minister Laila Freivalds, as deputies on the party’s Executive Committee.

The unanimous decision came after much arm-twisting and negotiation in the corridors, since more candidates had been put forward for the posts.

But it means that Gothenburg is now without representation on the Executive Committee.

In August Göran Johansson resigned in protest against the government’s latest round of defence cuts, in which several bases in Gothenburg have been shut down.

The city had hoped to be represented by Anneli Hulthén, but the seven so-called ‘forest districts’ of Jämtland, Värmland, Dalarna, Gävleborg, Norrbotten, Västerbotten and Västernorrland threw their weight behind Baylan instead.