I met a former Prime Minister yesterday. Stefan Löfven. At Nybroplan. He was checking out the Stockholm Marathon race. Sure was a fine Summer day for that sort of thing. 18C and sunny. Stockholm was absolutely packed with people. Not counting the 17 000 runners. From where we were standing when I took this portrait, it was nearly impossible to see the runners because of the crowds. Still going through my photos from the race, but expect a few posts with Stockholm Marathon related photos over the next week or so!
Ann Linde, enjoying the Spring sunshine as she walks through Kungsträdgården with two bodyguards. A busy time for her at the moment, especially the problems with the Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan regarding Sweden's wish to join NATO. All three of them noticed me btw.
It has been a busy few weeks for Magdalena Andersson. She took over as leader of the Social Democratic Party two weeks ago, and have been in talks with other political parties since then. If those talks pan out in Magda's favor, she will be the first female Prime Minister in Sweden in a not too distant future, maybe even this coming week. I spotted her a couple of days ago as she was leaving City Hall at Kungsholmen.
Amanda Lind, Minister for Culture and Democracy, (and Sports as well), speaking at the cultural festival "Kulturparksfestivalen" in Handen yesterday afternoon. She is a member of the Green Party. Tricky to see from this angle perhaps, but Amanda is pregnant with her third child. She gave a fine speech about all the culture that we have around us. If you speak the local lingo you can hear the speech here.
The Mayor of Haninge, Martina Mossberg had a busy day during the Midsummer party in the park. She promised me that she would partake in the traditional dancing around the Maypole, and I said that a photo of her doing the Small Frogs dance would be a good one! Perhaps that scared her because when the dance started she was busy giving away strawberries, and yes they were very tasty. On the second photo Martina is talking to fellow politician Raymond Svensson, and treating Mikael Vinsa (who is one of the people in the Jordbro World Orchestra project), to a free strawberry. And on the third photo you can see Mikael in action during the Midsummer dancing where he was one of two musicians playing all the traditional songs.
After two rainy days the sun was back yesterday. I decided to make a stop at the National Park in Tyresta. As I was taking a few photos of the farm at the park I could hear a couple walking towards me. When I turned around to say a quick hello I realised that it was our former Prime Minister Ingvar Carlsson and his wife Ingrid, so I decided to ask the former statesman for a portrait, and luckily for me he said yes. Ingvar Carlsson had what must have been the toughest start any Prime Minister could ever have. He was the man who took over as Prime Minister on the night of the murder of Olof Palme back in 1986. In total he was acting PM for around eight years, and I think it is fair to say that he was one of the more popular politicians we have had in this country. So it was nice to meet him like this in the park.
I visited a Summer Festival on Saturday. In Brandbergen. That's where I met Jacob and Åsa. Two police officers working from the Brandbergen station. It was a warm and sunny day, and everyone seemed happy, so it wasn't a very hard day for the officers. But they were in fact bribed during the day. I happened to overhear that conversation, so I demanded the same bribe, and a minute later we were all enjoying a free ice cream! I also met the new Mayor Martina Mossberg and we talked about politics for a while. I mentioned that I would blog about the festival and Martina told me that she had seen some of my photos. Two good bands were playing. Indoors you could listen to The Taxi Stand Steel Band. I have seen them before and they are always fantastic. The other band I saw was Doktor Krall. They play music from the 50s and 60s. They were joined by a singer called Tess Mercedes. Everyone gets hungry during a festival so there was a BBQ run by a local association called Samarkand. They got a bit exited when they noticed my camera, and a bit disappointed when I wasn't shooting for a newspaper. You could also enjoy African food. I took a portrait of a young man called Hesam, he is a police volunteer and a future police offer, we discussed photography which is one of his new hobbies. I also snapped a photo of a colorful clown who was busy making balloon animals for visiting kids. To see all photos (including a mishap for the police offocers), check out the slideshow above.
