A Moderate for over 30 years

Forssell was born in 1979 in Stockholm, and has been affiliated with the Moderates since 1992, when he joined MUF, the youth wing of the party, aged 13.

He became leader of MUF in 2004, at the age of 25, and remained leader until 2006.

Following the 2006 election – the best election for the Moderates since 1928 – Forssell was appointed stabschef or chief of staff for prime minister Fredrik Reinfeldt. He later became the party’s planning manager for the 2010 election, which the Moderates again won.

While the Moderates were in opposition from 2014-2022, Forssell had a number of different roles in parliament, such as vice chair and later chair for the committee on social insurance, member of the justice committee and justice spokesperson for the Moderates.

In 2022, after the Moderates took power alongside the Liberals and Christian Democrats with the support of the Sweden Democrats, Forssell became the Minister for Foreign Trade and International Development, sometimes referred to as the Minister for Aid and Trade.

What has he done with his time in government so far?

In his time as aid and trade minister, the government slashed development aid by 7.3 billion kronor in 2023, and another 2.3 billion kronor in 2024 – around a 15 percent reduction from what the previous left-wing government had planned. It also abandoned the former foreign aid target of 1 percent of gross national income.

Forssell also announced plans earlier this year to end development aid to Iraq, with the aim of phasing it out completely by the end of June next year.

At the time, he also told reporters that Swedish development aid was too fragmented, as it was distributed to over 100 countries.

“When aid is distributed to so many countries at the same time it makes control and evaluation of it more difficult. We will work in fewer countries than before and expand the work in the countries where we actually are.”

His role as aid and trade minister also means that he has an understanding of Sweden’s reputation abroad – be that good or bad.

In April this year, Forssell announced government plans to put together a new group to boost Sweden’s international reputation, following a series of disinformation campaigns after Quran burnings in 2023.

“We as a government have spent a lot of time on these issues. I myself have made trips to the region to meet political leaders and business people. Last autumn, I probably thought that the consequences for trade would be greater than they were,” he told Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter at the time.

Despite expectations, trade between Sweden and the Middle East increased during this period, but Forssell said at the time action was still needed to strengthen the country’s image.

To do this, he told the Swedish Institute to form a new group called “Team Sweden”, to focus exclusively on boosting Sweden’s international reputation.

Promoting Sweden as an innovative country, with a particular focus on digitalisation and being an environmentally sustainable economy and society, is one of the group’s main objectives.

What’s his educational background?

Forssell uses the professional title civilekonom (civil economist), which traditionally refers to someone who holds a degree (either bachelor or master) in business administration and economics.

He studied at Stockholm School of Economics, graduating in 2004. He also spent a semester abroad at London School of Economics (LSE).

Perhaps unsurprisingly for someone with a degree in economics, he has a large stock portfolio – in a 2022 review by newswire TT prior to the election that year, his portfolio was actually the joint-largest in parliament, alongside Sweden Democrat Oscar Sjöstedt.

MPs must declare any holdings that exceed 94,600 kronor in a single company. In 2022, Forssell declared 38 holdings worth at least 94,600 kronor each.

Forssell’s portfolio at the time contained Swedish mobile gaming company LeoVegas and American online casino company Rush Street Interactive, as well as a holding in Swedish defence group Saab.

In addition to Swedish shares he also held stakes in Apple, Amazon and Alphabet, among others. 

“For me, it is an obvious question, we have some of the world’s finest companies in Sweden,” he said at the time. “Being able to invest in them means that you get a greater interest in economic policy and what creates growth. I think this makes me a better member of parliament and that more people should do it.”

These holdings clearly show a knowledge of the Swedish market, so it perhaps comes as no surprise that he underlined the importance of highly-qualified labour migration for Swedish companies when he took over as migration minister earlier this week.

It appears that he sold his individual shares when he joined the Swedish government, investing in funds instead, perhaps to avoid a potential conflict of interest. He told Swedish tabloid Aftonbladet in November 2023 that he “did not own any individual shares”, and that he chose instead to invest in a wide range of funds. He added that his fund holdings at the time included a number of developing markets, including Taiwan, South Korea, China, Brazil and India.

His personal holdings at the time of that article were around 6.2 million kronor.