Birgit Friggebo

Background

FRIGGEBO, Birgit was born on December 25, 1941 in Falköping, Sweden.

Education

Higher School Certificate, Economics, 1960, Stockholm. Spoken languages: Swedish, English, German.

Career

Minister of Housing, 1976-1982. Party Secretary for the Liberal Party, 1983-1985. Member of Riksdag since 1985.

Member of the following Committees. Constitutional, Administrative, Secret Police. Various internal working-groups dealing with Member of Parliament’s professional situation.

Minister of Immigration and Cultural Affairs. Clerk in father’s construction and estate agents company, 1960-1966. Head of negotiations, Swedens Beneficial Housing Company (SABO), 196976.

Achievements

• As Minister for Housing, she removed the need for a planning approval to build small sheds under 15 square meters of area. Such sheds are now popularly known as "friggebod", a pun on her surname, bod meaning shed. As Minister for Culture and Immigration, she appeared in a televised debate held in Rinkeby on the serial sniper John Ausonius"s reign of terror. During the debate she stood up and tried to get the crowd consisting mostly of non-white immigrants to sing "We Shall Overcome". The incident was widely regarded as an embarrassment and a public relations debacle and showed the alienation felt by many immigrants vis-à-vis the centre-right coalition government.

Religion

Protestant

Membership

She was a member of the Swedish Parliament between 1979 and 1982 and yet again between 1985 and 1997.

Connections

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