Amanda Lind
Amanda Lind in 2019
Minister for Culture
In office
21 January 2019 – 30 November 2021
MonarchCarl XVI Gustaf
Prime MinisterStefan Löfven
Preceded byAlice Bah Kuhnke
Succeeded byJeanette Gustafsdotter
Minister for Democracy
In office
21 January 2019 – 30 November 2021
MonarchCarl XVI Gustaf
Prime MinisterStefan Löfven
Preceded byAlice Bah Kuhnke
Succeeded byJeanette Gustafsdotter
Personal details
Born
Amanda Sofia Margareta Johansson

(1980-08-02) 2 August 1980 (age 43)
Uppsala, Sweden
Political partyGreen Party
SpouseBjörn Ola Lind

Amanda Sofia Margareta Lind (née Johansson; born 2 August 1980) is a politician for the Swedish Green Party. From 2019 to 2021, she was the Minister for Culture and Democracy, with responsibility for sport and national minorities in the cabinet of Prime Minister Stefan Löfven.[1]

Early life and education

From the age of three, Lind grew up in Luleå where her father Erik Hugo Johansson was a pastor and her mother Eva Bask Johansson was a pharmacist.[2] Having studied at Umeå University, she received her master's degree in psychology in 2009.

Career

Lind became a member of Miljöpartiet de gröna, the Swedish Green Party, in 1999[1] and was a member of the Umeå municipal council from 2002 to 2004.

Lind worked as a child and adolescent psychologist for Västernorrland County council from 2009 to 2011. In 2010, she was appointed spokesperson for the Härnösand social affairs agency and in 2012 as spokesperson for Västernorrland.

Between 2011 and 2014, she chaired the social affairs committee in the municipality of Härnösand with responsibility for cultural, environmental, planning and recreational issues.[3] Lind was municipal councillor and first vice-chair of the municipal council in Härnösand from 2014 to 2018. She became the Green Party secretary in 2016, succeeding Anders Wallner.[4] In January 2019, she became the Swedish Minister for Culture and Democracy, with responsibility also for sport and national minorities. In November 2021, when the Green Party left the government, she was succeeded as minister by Jeanette Gustafsdotter.

Controversy

In 2019, the Chinese ambassador to Sweden Gui Congyou threatened Lind with a ban on entering his country when she attended Svenska PEN’s Tucholsky Prize ceremony in honor of Gui Minhai, a book publisher detained in China.[5]

In 2021, Lind as the Swedish culture minister stated that Elfdalian would remain judged as a dialect by the Swedish government, after an inquiry by Swedish MP Peter Helander as to why the government hadn't investigated whether Elfdalian should be classified as a language, as the Council of Europe had proposed.[6]

Personal life

Lind is married to filmmaker Björn Ola Lind. The couple have three children together.[1] In her spare time she devotes herself to historical re-creation, tennis and handicrafts.

Lind and the Esperanto language

Lind speaks Esperanto[citation needed] and addressed the 104th World Esperanto Congress in fluent Esperanto. The Congress took place in Lahti, Finland from 20 to 27 July 2019. Here is the Esperanto message, with an English translation on the right:

References

  1. ^ a b c "Amanda Lind (MP) blir ny kulturminister" [Amanda Lind (MP) becomes the new Minister of Culture]. Dagens Nyheter [The News of the Day] (in Swedish). 21 January 2019. Retrieved 22 January 2019.
  2. ^ Krisen får inte definiera oss ("The crisis will not define us"), 13 May 2016, Dagens Arena. Retrieved 10 July 2019.
  3. ^ Sveriges nya kulturminister Amanda Lind (MP) brinner för frågorna: ‘Jag är resultatinriktad’ ("Sweden’s new Culture Minister Amanda Lind is afire with questions: ‘I am results-oriented”.”), 21 January 2019, Sundsvalls Tidning. Retrieved 29 July 2019.
  4. ^ ((Cite radioAmanda Lind valdes till partisekreterare för Miljöpartiet (“Amanda Lind elected party secretary for Green Party"), 15 May 2016, Sveriges Radio. Retrieved 29 July 2019.
  5. ^ Simon Johnson, Johan Ahlander and Cate Cadell (15 November 2019), China, Sweden escalate war of words over support for detained bookseller Reuters.
  6. ^ Catherine, Edwards. "Why a Swedish politician is demanding the right to speak an ancient 'forest language' in parliament". The Local. Archived from the original on 23 April 2021. Retrieved 5 May 2021.
  7. ^ "Daily journal of the 104th World Esperanto Congress" (PDF). Retrieved 28 July 2019.

External links

Green Party of Sweden
โ† Members of the Riksdag, 2022โ€“2026 โ†’
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