# Karin Enström

# Karin Enström

*Karin Enström, member of the Swedish Riksdag for the [Moderate Party](/organizations/moderate-party).*

Karin Enström (born 1966) is a Swedish politician of the Moderate Party and a member of the Riksdag for Stockholm County. She has sat continuously since 5 October 1998, apart from a leave of absence from 18 April 2012 to 3 October 2014 while she was Minister for Defence. Since 19 October 2022 she has been party secretary of the Moderates, succeeding [Gunnar Strömmer](/people/gunnar-strommer) when he became minister for justice under Prime Minister [Ulf Kristersson](/people/ulf-kristersson). The Riksdag lists her title as captain in the coastal artillery.

In the biography she has supplied to the Riksdag, her parents are named as the chief physician Staffan Landerholm and Olena Tingdal. She completed a social-science programme at S:t Eskils skola in 1984, graduated from the Naval Officers’ College in 1987, took the general course at the Naval War College in 1988 and the higher course at the War College in 1993. She was commissioned as an ensign at the Vaxholm Coastal Artillery Regiment in 1987, became a lieutenant in 1988 and a captain in 1993. Before she entered parliament she was secretary-general of the Moderate Youth League in 1991–1992 and a political adviser in the Ministry of Industry in 1993–1994.

She was a municipal councillor in Eskilstuna from 1988 to 1991 and in Vaxholm from 1994, chairing the Vaxholm council in 2002–2006, 2010–2012 and 2014–2022. In parliament she served on the Committee on Defence from 2002 to 2010 and chaired the cross-party Defence Commission from 2008 to 2012. She chaired the Committee on [Foreign Affairs](/organizations/foreign-affairs) from 2010 until her appointment as minister, and she chaired the Committee on the Constitution from 26 February 2019 to 26 September 2022.

Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt appointed her defence minister and head of the [Ministry of Defence](/organizations/ministry-of-defence) in April 2012; the Government Offices list her in that post from 18 April. She succeeded [Sten Tolgfors](/people/sten-tolgfors), whose term the same report gives as 5 September 2007 to 29 March 2012, and who resigned after controversy over plans for Sweden to help Saudi Arabia build a weapons plant. The annual report notes that she came from the chair of the foreign-affairs committee and, before that, the defence committee. She left office with the Reinfeldt cabinet on 3 October 2014. Ahead of the new Riksdag’s first sitting in September 2022, Altinget reported that the chamber secretariat expected Carina Ohlsson to preside as age president and that Enström, also first elected in 1998, would take the role when Ohlsson left for the [European Parliament](/organizations/european-parliament), until Tomas Eneroth, elected in 1994, returned from government.

She remains an ordinary member while serving as party secretary. From 19 June 2024 she has chaired the Riksdag delegation to the [NATO Parliamentary Assembly](/organizations/nato-parliamentary-assembly), and she sits on the Advisory Council on Foreign Affairs and the War Delegation. Sweden became NATO’s 32nd member on 7 March 2024, when its instrument of accession was deposited in Washington. Her brother Henrik Landerholm resigned as national security adviser on 27 January 2025 after mislaying classified documents; SVT identified him as the brother of the Moderate party secretary.

## Early life and education

### Family background

Karin Märta Elisabeth Enström, born Landerholm, was born on 23 March 1966 in Uppsala, Sweden. The Riksdag biography, drawn from information she submitted to the publication *Fakta om folkvalda*, records only the birth year 1966. When she was named defence minister in April 2012, news reports described her as 46, which matches that date.

She is the daughter of Staffan Landerholm, a senior physician (*överläkare*), and Olena Tingdal, listed in the parliamentary biography as a *fil.kand.* (the Swedish *filosofie kandidat* degree). In a 2016 interview she described her mother as a teacher and her father as a doctor, and said that neither parent had been politically engaged, although public affairs were regularly discussed at home. *Eskilstuna-Kuriren* reported that she grew up in Torshälla.

She is the middle of three siblings. Her elder brother is Henrik Landerholm, and her younger sister is Louise Landerholm Bill. Profiles published at the 2012 appointment identified Louise as married to Per Bill, then a Moderate Party member of the Riksdag, and noted that both of Enström's siblings were also active in the party.

### Schooling

The Riksdag biography states that she completed upper-secondary school on the social-science line (*samhällsvetenskaplig linje*) at S:t Eskils skola, finishing in 1984. The school is in central Eskilstuna, at Smedjegatan, and is now S:t Eskils gymnasium, a municipal upper-secondary school. *Eskilstuna-Kuriren* said she had attended S:t Eskils gymnasium, and a later profile referred to her gymnasium studies in Eskilstuna. The published biographies do not record a primary school or other details of her schooling.

### Officer training

She has described the move into the military as happening almost by chance after gymnasium. Her brother had done his conscription; she became curious, applied herself, and later said the point was to test herself and see what she could manage in another setting.

The biography filed with the Riksdag states that she took her officer's examination at the Swedish Navy's officers' college (*Marinens officershögskola*) in 1987, the general course at the Navy War College (*Marinens krigshögskola*) in 1988, and the higher course at the War College (*Krigshögskolan*) in 1993. A 2013 *[Svenska Dagbladet](/organizations/svenska-dagbladet)* profile is not identical in its institutional names. The article text said she completed *Krigshögskolan*'s general course in 1988 and its higher course in 1993, while a fact box in the same piece assigned the general course to *Marinens krigshögskola* at Berga and the higher course to *Marinens krigshögskola* at Näsby park, and placed the officers' college in Karlskrona in 1985–1987.

She was commissioned as a *fänrik*, the most junior officer rank, at the Vaxholm Coastal Artillery Regiment in 1987, promoted to *löjtnant* in 1988 and to *kapten* in 1993. The Riksdag lists her title as captain in the coastal artillery. News profiles at the time of the ministerial appointment called her a captain in the Swedish Amphibious Corps.

## Military service

### Vaxholm Coastal Artillery Regiment

Karin Enström was commissioned in the Vaxholm Coastal Artillery Regiment (Vaxholms kustartilleriregemente, KA 1), a Swedish Navy unit at Vaxholm in the Stockholm Archipelago. In the biography she submitted to the Riksdag publication *Fakta om folkvalda*, the ranks are second lieutenant (*fänrik*) at that regiment in 1987, lieutenant (*löjtnant*) in 1988 and captain (*kapten*) in 1993.

The regiment handled coastal artillery for the seaward approaches to Stockholm. Enström has said she entered that setting to test her own limits. A 2016 TT profile reported that, as a woman at KA 1, she was one of six among hundreds of soldiers, and that she was later tested in a leadership role, having to make things work despite practical and human problems. The profile said that before she became a full-time politician she had been a captain in the Amphibious Corps. Neither that account nor the biography she filed with the Riksdag describes her as commander of a battery, company or regiment.

The promotions predate the reorganization of the branch. In the November 1999 bill *Det nya försvaret*, the government proposed disbanding fixed coastal-artillery units and the heavy coastal-missile battery, resting coastal defence mainly on amphibious forces—an amphibious brigade headquarters and three amphibious battalions—and keeping KA 1 in Vaxholm as the main training unit because of its infrastructure and the nearby archipelago. A further bill on organization in the [Swedish Armed Forces](/organizations/swedish-armed-forces) said coastal-artillery regiments should be renamed amphibious regiments, and that the branch name *kustartilleriet* should become *amfibiekåren*, the Swedish Amphibious Corps. It referred to a Vaxholm Amphibious Regiment, into which the coastal-artillery combat school would be placed as the Amphibious Combat School.

### Rank and later status

The Swedish member page still titles her “Kapten i amfibiekåren”; the English page gives the same field as “Captain, Coast Artillery.” The biography records no rank above captain.

The captaincy has continued as a rank on leave, not as an active command. At the press conference on 18 April 2012, when she was presented as minister for defence, she said: “Jag har tre barn, bor i Vaxholm, kapten i amfibiekåren och tjänstledig därifrån” (“I have three children, I live in Vaxholm, [I am a] captain in the Amphibious Corps and on leave from there”). *Aftonbladet* listed her as the new minister and a captain on leave in the Amphibious Corps, and *Svenska Dagbladet* as a 45-year-old captain in the corps. *Dagens Nyheter* headlined the story “Enström – yrkesofficer och riksdagsledamot” (“Enström – professional officer and member of parliament”) and, in the opening sentence, called her a former captain in the Amphibious Corps.

In the employment lines she supplied, the early-1990s posts are secretary-general of the youth wing of the Moderate Party (1991–92) and political adviser in the Ministry of Industry (1993–94), the year of the recorded promotion to captain. She entered the Riksdag in 1998. A 2016 TT fact box still described her as “member of parliament and professional officer.” In SVT’s 2022 election compass she gave her occupation as “Yrkesofficer, kapten i Amfibiekåren” (“Professional officer, captain in the Amphibious Corps”).

## Early political career

### Moderate Youth League

In 1991–1992 Karin Enström was secretary-general (*generalsekreterare*) of the Moderate Youth League (Moderata ungdomsförbundet), the youth organization of the Moderate Party. The post is listed in the biography she supplied for the Riksdag reference *Fakta om folkvalda*, and the party repeated it when she became party secretary in 2022.

Statutes adopted by the league's congress in Malmö in 2016 describe it as an organization that seeks to win young people to the party's liberal and conservative outlook. Membership runs from the year a person turns 12 until the year they turn 30, and also confers party membership without a further fee. The congress is the highest decision-making body. Between congresses a national board directs political, financial and organizational work, and that board—not the congress—appoints a chief official (*chefstjänsteman*), who sits as non-voting secretary of the nomination committee. The title recorded for Enström is *generalsekreterare*, an office distinct from the elected chair. In 1991–1992 that chair was Ulf Kristersson, who led the league from 1988 to 1992.

### Municipal politics

Enström was a member of the municipal council in Eskilstuna Municipality, in Södermanland County, from 1988 to 1991. The dates match one term under the three-year cycles used from 1970 until 1994, when municipal-council terms were lengthened to four years.

The Instrument of Government places decision-making in the municipalities with elected assemblies. Municipalities handle local matters of general interest on the basis of local self-government, within rules set by law, and may levy tax for that purpose. The council (*kommunfullmäktige*) is the highest decision-making body: it sets the municipality's direction, budget, tax rate and fees, organizes the administration, and elects the executive board, committees and auditors. Committees prepare and carry out decisions, and employees do the daily work. Most of Sweden's roughly 34,500 municipal politicians serve part-time.

From 1994 Enström sat on the council of Vaxholm Municipality in Stockholm County, which has 31 members and 24 substitutes. She was a substitute on the municipal executive board from 1994 to 2002. The council elects that board to lead and coordinate the municipality and to answer for its economy between meetings; the council chair does not hold the executive post. The council instead chooses its own chair and one or more vice chairs from among its members. The chair directs meetings and keeps order, gives notice of time, place and business, puts proposals to a vote and has a casting vote if the council ties, except in elections and appointments, which are settled by lot. Minutes are the chair's responsibility.

On the account in her Riksdag biography she chaired Vaxholm's council in 2002–2006, 2010–2012 and 2014–2022, and has chaired the municipality's nomination committee since 2002. The council seat ran from 1994 to 2012 and from 2014 onward, so both the seat and the chairmanship broke in 2012–2014, while she was minister for defence. Minutes of 14 June 2021 list her as chair. On 12 December 2022 the council elected Hanna Backström (Moderate) to succeed her.

### Ministry of Industry

In 1993–1994, between the youth-league post and the Vaxholm council, Enström was a political adviser (*politiskt sakkunnig*) at the Ministry of Industry (Näringsdepartementet). In the Government Offices of Sweden that is a politically employed official attached to a minister. A minister's political staff usually comprises a state secretary, political advisers and press secretaries. They stand outside the permanent civil service and leave when that minister leaves, while other staff remain through a change of government. Roughly 200 of about 4,900 employees in the Government Offices are political appointees.

The post fell during the Moderate-led coalition of Prime Minister [Carl Bildt](/people/carl-bildt), in office from 4 October 1991 to 7 October 1994 with [the Liberals](/organizations/the-liberals), the Centre Party and the [Christian Democrats](/organizations/christian-democrats). [Per Westerberg](/people/per-westerberg) headed the department throughout Enström's time there, as minister for the Ministry of Industry from 4 to 21 October 1991 and for Näringsdepartementet from its reorganization on 22 October 1991 until 7 October 1994.

## Member of the Riksdag

### Elections and constituency

Karin Enström sits in the Riksdag for the Moderate Party. The Riksdag lists her constituency as Stockholm County, seat 7, not the separate Stockholm municipality constituency. Its assignment register records her as an ordinary member from 5 October 1998 to 17 April 2012 and again from 4 October 2014 to 23 September 2030. From 18 April 2012 to 3 October 2014 she was off duty from the seat while Minister for Defence. The Swedish Election Authority’s 2022 decision names her among the Moderates elected for Stockholms län, third in the party’s comparison-number order there, with a jämförelsetal of 57,452.

### Defence and foreign-affairs committees

The Committee on Defence prepares business on the military and civil defence, emergency preparedness, cybersecurity, signals intelligence and the Coast Guard. Enström was a full member from 8 October 2002 to 2 October 2006 and from 10 October 2006 to 4 October 2010, and a deputy member from 18 March to 3 September 2020. From 2008 she chaired the Defence Commission (Försvarsberedningen). The Government of Sweden describes it as the forum in which the government consults Riksdag-party representatives in search of a broad agreement on defence and security policy; its reports feed proposals to the Riksdag. TT reported on 10 January 2008 that she would take the chair, and the biography she submitted for *Fakta om folkvalda* dates it to 2008–2012.

The Committee on Foreign Affairs covers Sweden’s foreign and security policy, relations with other countries, the scale of development aid, and questions concerning the European Union, the [United Nations](/organizations/united-nations) and human rights. The register lists her as chair from 12 October 2010 to 17 April 2012 and as deputy chair from 7 October 2014 to 19 December 2017. The biography on the same page instead says she was deputy chair from 2014 to 2022. The structured list does not: after 19 December 2017 the entries are as a deputy member, including from 29 November 2022 to 28 September 2026. She was also a deputy member from 1998 to 2010, and served repeatedly on the Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defence, chairing it for several short periods between 2010 and 2017.

### Committee on the Constitution and the age presidency

The Committee on the Constitution examines whether the government and its ministers follow the rules for the work of government; any member may report a minister to it. It also handles the basic laws, radio and television, and support for the daily press. Enström was a deputy member from 13 October 1998 to 15 February 2000, a member for a few days in February 2019, and chair from 26 February 2019 to 26 September 2022. At the next term’s opening she was a member on 4 October 2022 only, and deputy chair from that day until 20 October 2022.

Under the Riksdag Act the age president (*ålderspresident*) is the member present who has belonged to the Riksdag the longest, with age breaking a tie. That member opens the first sitting after an election until the Speaker and deputy Speakers are chosen, and may preside if all of them are absent. On 26 September 2022 Carina Ohlsson of the [Swedish Social Democratic Party](/organizations/swedish-social-democratic-party) opened the new Riksdag in that role; once [Andreas Norlén](/people/andreas-norlen) had been elected Speaker, Ohlsson’s resignation of her seat, effective from that decision, was approved. *Altinget*, citing the chamber secretariat that morning, reported that Ohlsson, Enström and Mikael Oscarsson of the Christian Democrats had all entered in 1998 and that Ohlsson presided as the oldest, so that Enström would succeed her until Tomas Eneroth — first elected in 1994 and then on leave as a minister — returned after the change of government. He resumed his seat on 18 October 2022, is named as age president in the minute of 21 December 2022, and was described by *Altinget* in March 2025 as having held the post since the 2022 election. No autumn 2022 minute records Enström presiding.

### NATO Parliamentary Assembly

The NATO Parliamentary Assembly brings together legislators from NATO countries — 32, in the Riksdag’s account — for spring and autumn sessions that debate reports and resolutions. The Riksdag was an associate participant from 2003; its delegation was an observer once Sweden applied in 2022, and a full member when Sweden joined NATO on 7 March 2024. Enström chaired the Riksdag delegation from 17 November 2010 to 17 April 2012 and from 24 October 2018 to 24 October 2022, and was deputy chair from 5 November 2014 to 24 October 2018. After the 2022 election she was a deputy member from 26 October 2022, a member from 10 April 2024, and chair again from 19 June 2024.

The Advisory Council on Foreign Affairs (Utrikesnämnden) is the body the government must keep informed of foreign-policy conditions of importance to Sweden and, where possible, consult before deciding a major foreign matter. It comprises the Speaker and 18 members, nine ordinary and nine substitutes. [Carl XVI Gustaf](/people/carl-xvi-gustaf) presides, or the prime minister if the King is prevented, and the chair may impose an unconditional duty of confidentiality. Enström was a member from 12 October 2010 to 17 April 2012, a deputy member from 7 October 2014 to 2 October 2022 and from 4 October 2022 to 6 October 2026, and a member again from 6 October 2026. The War Delegation, the Speaker plus 50 members, can replace the Riksdag in war or danger of war; the council’s members and the prime minister may so decide if war threatens, provided the prime minister and six council members agree. Enström was a member from 19 October 2010 to 9 October 2022 and again from 11 October 2022.

## Minister for Defence

### Appointment

Fredrik Reinfeldt's Alliance government lost its defence minister on 29 March 2012, when Sten Tolgfors resigned at his own request after Sveriges Radio's Ekot reported plans, involving the Swedish Defence Research Agency (FOI) and a front company, SSTI, for a weapons factory in Saudi Arabia. Tolgfors said he had asked to leave after the reform was done and that media pressure had passed his limit. Reinfeldt named Catharina Elmsäter-Svärd acting Minister for Defence.

On 18 April Reinfeldt appointed Karin Enström, a Moderate Party member of the Riksdag, at a press conference in Rosenbad. He called her a strong politician with a background in the Swedish Armed Forces, and said she was to develop the operational defence and prepare a defence decision expected in 2014. Enström, a captain in the amphibious corps, chair of the foreign affairs committee and former chair of the defence commission, said she was glad, honoured and humble. She did not argue for large changes in arms cooperation with Saudi Arabia and other dictatorships. A capable industry, she said, had to export to keep supplying Swedish forces, and a Riksdag-ordered review would show whether the rules should change. Dagens Nyheter reported that she avoided the dictatorship question. [Peter Hultqvist](/people/peter-hultqvist), the [Social Democrats](/organizations/social-democrats)' defence spokesman, called her background good but said about 10,000 posts were unfilled and that early departures from the employed force would raise recruitment costs. Enström said it was too early to judge the voluntary system, though it might need adjustment, and that her task was to keep an economy she described as in balance. She would not say whether more money would be found for upgrades of the JAS 39 Gripen.

### The volunteer force and the defence budget

Peacetime conscription had already been set aside. An amendment to the Total Defence Service Act, in force from 1 July 2010, required mustering or military or civil service only if the government decided that defence readiness required it. The underlying duty remained. The government had proposed that staffing rest primarily on volunteers, with a voluntary basic military education in the Armed Forces.

In SVT's Agenda on 3 June 2012, Enström would not promise the two billion kronor Supreme Commander Sverker Göransson had said were needed, and foresaw a "prolonged" budget into the 2015 decision. Recruitment, she said, had beaten expectations, with fourteen applicants per place, though more soldiers on short contracts had left than expected. She said pay was for the labour-market parties, rejected experienced officers' doubts that the country could still be defended, and argued that the volunteer units' capability would not have been reached under conscription. Russia's rearmament did not alarm her: "just now we have a peaceful Baltic Sea".

The 2014 budget bill proposed to raise the appropriation for unit activity and readiness by 200 million kronor in 2014, 300 million in 2015, 400 million in 2016 and 500 million from 2017, mainly for part-time personnel and more exercises. Materiel funding had already been increased by 300 million kronor in each of 2013 and 2014, and by 200 million from 2015, for the JAS 39E. Enström presented these steps as rising defence spending. In July 2014 Peter Nordlund, lead author of FOI's report *Försvarsmaktens ekonomiska förutsättningar*, told Svenska Dagbladet that the defence price index, set in the [Ministry of Finance](/organizations/ministry-of-finance) under Anders Borg, had taken the money back. A 2012 change in the index, approved by the Riksdag in 2011, had in the report's words "entirely erased" the increases for 2013 and 2014. Nordlund said the forces had forgone 600 million kronor through 2014, set against those additions, on a budget he put at 41.8 billion, and called the index an "invisible decision-maker".

### Russia, Ukraine and Nordic cooperation

On 5 March 2014, as Russian forces moved in Ukraine and on Crimea, Enström told Svenska Dagbladet that Russia's conduct was unacceptable and worrying and had changed the security situation for Europe and Sweden. "It will affect what our defence policy looks like," she said, though it was too early to say how. She extended the Defence Commission's deadline from 31 March to 15 May, kept a decision for spring 2015 as the aim, and said two years of higher appropriations could be speeded up because the situation had changed, not as a pretext for rearmament. Two Armed Forces observers would go to Crimea for the [Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe](/organizations/organization-for-security-and-co-operation-in-europe), and Ukraine's territory and sovereignty had to be respected.

Jan Björklund, leader of the Liberal People's Party and deputy prime minister, had called for a "shift of doctrine" and said responsibility for misjudging Russia was widely shared. Enström answered that Social Democratic governments had made the reductions, and that the Alliance had closed no regiment or unit, against about sixty units closed earlier. On 3 April the news agency TT reported that she wanted up to 70 next-generation Gripens, rather than the 60 decided by the Riksdag, citing Russian rearmament and Russia's actions in Ukraine.

On 6 May 2014 in Vantaa, with Finland's defence minister Carl Haglund, she set out a peacetime plan for joint naval, air and army training, shared resources, staff exchanges and possible joint procurement. Both said it was not a defence alliance. Sweden remained a NATO partner, not an applicant. On 27 August Enström said the government could shortly approve a host-nation agreement letting NATO forces transit Sweden and use its facilities, including support to the alliance response force, only on Swedish invitation. Peter Rådberg of the [Green Party](/organizations/green-party) said that would raise Baltic tension and leave Sweden barely short of membership. The government signed a supplementary protocol to the Partnership for Peace status-of-forces agreement on 1 August 2014 and the host-nation memorandum on 4 September.

The Alliance lost the [general election of 14 September 2014](/facts/2014-swedish-general-election); Reinfeldt conceded as counts put the Social Democrats, Greens and [Left Party](/organizations/left-party) ahead of the Alliance parties. Enström stayed until 3 October, when Stefan Löfven presented his government and named Hultqvist minister for defence.

## Return to parliament, 2014–2022

The Moderate Party-led coalition government of Fredrik Reinfeldt left office on 3 October 2014, when Stefan Löfven became prime minister. Enström’s leave from the Riksdag ended the same day, and from 4 October 2014 she again sat as an ordinary member for Stockholm County.

### Foreign affairs and the EU Committee

From 7 October 2014 to 19 December 2017 she was deputy chair of the Committee on Foreign Affairs and the Moderates’ foreign-policy spokesperson. In December 2017 the party moved her to the Committee on European Union Affairs, the body in which the government anchors Sweden’s line in the EU; unlike the standing committees, it does not prepare decisions of the chamber. She was a full member, and was to lead the party’s work there, from 19 December 2017 to 14 February 2019.

She also sat on the Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defence in 2014–2017, and chaired it for short periods in 2015, 2016 and 2017. She was deputy chair of the Riksdag delegation to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly from 5 November 2014 to 24 October 2018, then chair until 24 October 2022.

### Chair of the Committee on the Constitution

She joined the Committee on the Constitution on 13 February 2019. On 26 February the committee accepted the resignations of Hans Ekström (Social Democrats) as chair and Marta Obminska (Moderate) as deputy chair, then elected Enström chair and Ekström deputy chair. She held the chair until 26 September 2022.

Chapter 13, Section 1, of the Instrument of Government charges the committee with examining ministers’ official duties and the handling of government business, with access to government records. It makes two reviews a year. The special review, usually reported in the spring and based on members’ complaints, asks whether ministers followed the rules in particular cases; the general review, usually reported in the autumn, looks at the administration of government business. A report may note failings in a minister’s conduct, but the committee cannot punish the minister or require a resignation, and a review is not a criminal investigation.

Presenting the spring 2021 report, 2020/21:KU20, on 14 June 2021, Enström said the committee had dealt with 28 matters, reached unanimous conclusions, and recorded shortcomings in 16 cases, six linked to the [COVID-19 pandemic](/drivers/covid-19-pandemic). On testing and contact tracing it found that unclear responsibility and reimbursement had slowed the expansion, that an agreement with the Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions could have come before early June 2020, and that the grant ordinance and the assignment to the [Public Health Agency of Sweden](/organizations/public-health-agency-of-sweden) had not been prepared promptly enough. It also found reason to have acted before September 2020 on protective equipment for socially critical work outside health and social care.

In 2021/22:KU20 the committee found that the Government Offices could have raised the evacuation of interpreters and other locally employed staff from Afghanistan with the Swedish Migration Agency before the end of July 2021, while noting the host state’s responsibility for its own citizens.

### The 2020 constitutional committee

On 13 February 2020 the government appointed a cross-party inquiry, later named 2020 års grundlagskommitté (Ju 2020:04), chaired by Anders Eka, president of the Supreme Court of Sweden. Enström was appointed on 18 March 2020 and signed the final report in March 2023; the biography she gave the Riksdag dates the membership 2019–2023.

Directive 2020:11 asked the committee how the fundamental laws are amended, whether the courts’ and judges’ independence should be strengthened for the longer term, and whether freedom of association could be limited further for groups engaged in terrorism. An interim report in March 2021, *Föreningsfrihet och terroristorganisationer* (SOU 2021:15), proposed that limit, and the change to the Instrument of Government took effect on 1 January 2023.

Every member, including Enström, backed the final report, *Förstärkt skydd för demokratin och domstolarnas oberoende* (SOU 2023:12); two special statements were attached, but no reservations. It proposed a two-thirds majority of all Riksdag members for the second decision amending a fundamental law, and support from more than half the members at the first; a wider role for the Council on Legislation; and a Courts Board (Domstolsstyrelsen) further from the government than the National Courts Administration, with ordinary judges chosen only from names advanced by a judge-majority body.

## Party secretary

### Appointment

On 19 October 2022, the day after Gunnar Strömmer was appointed minister for justice, Moderate Party leader and Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson presented Karin Enström as party secretary (*partisekreterare*). Kristersson called her "precis den kraft vi behöver när vi går in i en ny fas i vårt politiska arbete." She had sat in the Riksdag since 1998, apart from her years as defence minister.

The secretaryship runs the party organisation—the office, the membership and the election machinery—rather than the political leadership of the party leader or, in government, the prime minister. Enström kept her Riksdag seat. She said her focus was "kombinationen av organisationen och att vi ska göra Sverige bättre," so the party could "vinna val igen, och igen, och igen." In a party statement she said she wanted a broader party, "som fler känner sig hemma i," and that the Moderates should not only be called *Samlingspartiet* but be "samlingspartiet i svensk politik." On the [Sweden Democrats](/organizations/sweden-democrats), Kristersson said that "den som inte kan samarbeta får ingenting gjort."

### Organising a governing party

The post opened under the Tidö Agreement of 14 October 2022. Kristersson said the Liberals, the Christian Democrats and the Moderates would form the government and cooperate with the Sweden Democrats, who stayed outside the cabinet but were given a coordination office of political staff in the Government Offices. Strömmer's move into the Kristersson cabinet the day before had left the secretaryship open.

On 28 November 2022 the party appointed two deputy secretaries for the [2024 European Parliament election](/facts/2024-european-parliament-election) and the general election of 13 September 2026: Karin Juhlin, head of the party office since 2019, for development and organisation, and Martin Borgs, the communications chief, for strategy, communication and winning voters. Enström said both had "spelat avgörande roller." Borgs treated the term as one campaign: "Valrörelsen är inte allt, men allt är valrörelse." Juhlin led the 2024 European campaign and in 2025 became a state secretary to Benjamin Dousa; on 18 August 2025 Borgs was named 2026 campaign director, Kristersson saying it was "dags igen."

In 2024 the Moderates were one of three Riksdag parties whose membership grew, by 3 percent, with the Sweden Democrats and the Green Party. Enström told Altinget that growth supplied candidates for municipalities, regions and the Riksdag and the voluntary effort needed "för att vinna och förvalta människors förtroende." On 7 May 2026 she and Borgs presented the campaign under "ett rättvisare Sverige," with posters of Kristersson, Strömmer and Finance Minister [Elisabeth Svantesson](/people/elisabeth-svantesson). Borgs said the themes were the economy and security—"Ansträngning ska löna sig och brott ska straffa sig"—and that the target was 600,000 voter conversations. The Moderates finished on 19.85 percent, up 0.75 points, with 70 of 349 seats. The four Tidö parties took 173 seats and the parties SVT grouped as the opposition 176.

### Public role and internal debate

She also spoke for the governing party. In February 2025 she said policy, including on climate, was being reconsidered to win back women and voters in the large cities: "Vi tittar framåt och har tänkt till." In June, after Statistics Sweden put the party at 18.3 percent, down 1.5 points in a year, she described the election as a choice between going forward and a Social Democratic "farlig vänstersväng" that would make Sweden "både farligare och fattigare." *Aftonbladet*, citing three centrally placed Moderate sources, reported that the line was not accepted internally. They described stress, weak confidence in Kristersson and little sense of crisis in the Government Offices; the anger was aimed chiefly at the prime minister, but it was Enström's account they rejected.

A 2023 case concerned her own conduct of the organisation. After TV4 reported that Douglas Thor, chair of the Moderate Youth League, had encouraged payment of others' membership fees ahead of a district vote in Jämtland, an inquiry was opened that would report to Enström. Sources in the youth league and the party said she should stand aside, because her niece Alice Landerholm was described as Thor's closest aide. Enström refused: family closeness was "inte en faktor i den här utredningen," and the matter was "på mitt bord." In May the inquiry found that Thor had breached the ethical policy by starting the chat and encouraging the payments, but not that recruitment or the meeting broke the rules. Enström said she shared that view and that everyone should feel welcome, "och det måste också gälla i Moderata ungdomsförbundet."

Criticism of national security adviser Henrik Landerholm, Kristersson's childhood friend and Enström's brother, is treated separately. In January 2025 a senior Moderate told SVT that many were "jättefrustrerade," but that speaking openly was risky because he was "statsministerns bästa vän och partisekreterarens bror."

## Defence, foreign policy and NATO

### From partnership to membership

Sweden joined NATO's [Partnership for Peace](/organizations/partnership-for-peace) in 1994 and deepened cooperation while staying outside the alliance. Karin Enström was minister for defence from 18 April 2012 to 3 October 2014, when that line was still government policy. In opposition the Moderate Party moved from a general preference for membership to a dated plan. On 8 June 2015 party leader [Anna Kinberg Batra](/people/anna-kinberg-batra) presented a working-group proposal to apply in the term after the 2018 election, preferably with Finland; SVT reported that the party had already favoured membership and was now setting the time. On 2 July 2015 Enström wrote in *Svenska Dagbladet* that membership was the only long-term way to strengthen security and defence, and that it needed broad political and public support. In November 2015 she and Hans Wallmark wrote that Russia's annexation of Crimea had drawn a sharper line between members and non-members, and that military non-alignment limited Nordic defence cooperation to peacetime and left Sweden outside collective defence guarantees.

The application itself was a government decision. On 16 May 2022 Prime Minister [Magdalena Andersson](/people/magdalena-andersson)'s cabinet, citing broad support in the Riksdag, decided to apply after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine; Sweden handed the application over on 18 May 2022 and became a member on 7 March 2024, when Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson deposited the instrument of accession and Sweden became the 32nd ally. Enström was then an MP and, until 24 October 2022, chair of the Riksdag delegation to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly; she became Moderate party secretary on 19 October 2022. At the party's Sverigemöte in Karlstad on 24 March 2023 she said the Moderates had sent support to Ukraine and gathered a majority for a Swedish application. The Riksdag's approval was a separate vote, on 22 March 2023: 269 in favour and 37 against. The Moderates, the Swedish Social Democratic Party, the Sweden Democrats, the Centre Party, the Christian Democrats and the Liberals voted yes; the Left Party and the Green Party voted no. That was a narrower split than in 2015, when the Moderates were already setting a timetable and the Social Democratic government was not.

From 10 April 2024 she sat on the delegation formed after accession, and from 19 June 2024 she has chaired it, as she also did in 2010–2012 and 2018–2022.

### Spending, conscription and total defence

Conscription in Sweden had been dormant since 2010, including through Enström's years as defence minister. On 2 March 2017 the Social Democrat-led government, with Peter Hultqvist as defence minister, reactivated it because volunteer recruitment had fallen short and the regional security situation had worsened. About 4,000 men and women were to be called up from 1 January 2018, drawn from roughly 13,000 people born in 1999. In 2015 she had called the broad defence agreement for 2016–2020 a turning point, while still arguing that only membership would strengthen capability in the long run.

At the 2014 Wales summit, allies set out a guideline of spending a minimum of 2 percent of GDP on defence. The Kristersson government's budget bill for 2024, presented while Enström was party secretary rather than a minister, said military appropriations would rise by more than 27 billion kronor from 2023 to 2024, that the level had doubled since 2020, and that Sweden would meet 2 percent of GDP in 2024 on NATO's definition. The bill for 2025 proposed 138 billion kronor for the military defence, about 2.4 percent of GDP on that definition in 2025 and about 2.6 percent in 2028, plus more than 170 billion kronor over 2025–2030 for the measures in the coming bill on total defence for 2025–2030. Her own statements on Ukraine have stayed at that level of policy. In March 2023 she described the war as a threat to Europe's security and said support had been sent; at the 2024 Sverigemöte she called for politicians who would work for increased support to Ukraine.

## The Landerholm affair

### The national security adviser

The affair concerned Henrik Landerholm, Enström's brother, not Enström. A Moderate Party politician, diplomat and former Riksdag member, he was appointed on 10 November 2022 as Sweden's first national security adviser. Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson moved him from the Psychological Defence Agency. Reports described the two as childhood friends. Enström was not charged and was not a party to the case.

In March 2023 he left classified documents in an unlocked safe at the Gällöfsta conference centre; a cleaner found them. In January 2025 Dagens Nyheter reported four such documents and said at least one concerned Sweden's strategy toward Turkey in the NATO talks and a secret meeting with the then United States national security adviser. The Government Offices' security department did not report it to the police, judging he had not been grossly negligent. DN had also described a phone left at the Hungarian embassy and a notebook at [Sveriges Radio](/organizations/sveriges-radio).

On 22 January 2025 chief prosecutor Per Lindqvist opened a preliminary investigation into suspected careless handling of secret information (*vårdslöshet med hemlig uppgift*), conducted by the Swedish Security Service. Landerholm resigned on 27 January, writing that he and the prime minister agreed he could no longer do the job. An unnamed senior Moderate told SVT that colleagues were "extremely frustrated", yet because Landerholm was "the prime minister's best friend and the party secretary's brother" anyone who said in public what ought to be said would have "their head cut off". The resignation and court coverage do not record a public comment from Enström.

### Court case and political reaction

Prosecutors charged him in March 2025. On 5 September Attunda District Court acquitted him. It found secret information that could harm Sweden had been disclosed when staff at [the centre](/organizations/the-centre) gained access, but that his negligence was not gross. Prosecutors appealed in mid-September.

On 19 October 2026 the Svea Court of Appeal convicted him and set 80 day-fines of 650 kronor, 52,000 kronor, plus 1,000 kronor to the crime-victim fund. Justice Håkan Sellman said he had been considerably careless emptying an inadequate room safe when other secure storage existed, and that his post and experience made that negligence gross. Landerholm called the judgment a disappointment and said he and his lawyer would decide whether to pursue it; it was not yet legally final.

The Riksdag's Committee on the Constitution did not try him. Its 2025/26 report left deferred, because of the criminal case, complaints about the prime minister's responsibility for security routines and for the adviser's failings. What it did examine was delay in releasing documents DN had sought, and registration of a damage assessment of 23 March 2023. The Parliamentary Ombudsmen had in December 2025 criticised slow release of the documents. The committee recorded that the March 2023 damage assessment, which contained secret information, was treated as internal working material and registered only once it was requested, and that Kristersson agreed several requests should have been answered faster. The majority — Moderates, Christian Democrats, Liberals and Sweden Democrats — said the deferred scrutiny should wait for a legally final judgment.

After the appeal judgment, Jennie Nilsson of the Swedish Social Democratic Party, a vice-chair of the committee, said the public still did not know what the prime minister knew and when, and sought to resume a review she said the Tidö parties had blocked. Annika Hirvonen of the Green Party called the delay a blocking of scrutiny of "suspected friendship corruption and a cover-up" and said Kristersson should be summoned. Mats Green, the Moderate leader on the committee, called that desperate political use of a case not yet final.

## Personal life

### Marriage and children

Karin Enström is married to Anders Enström. When she was appointed minister for defence in April 2012, *Aftonbladet* described him as a 47-year-old lieutenant colonel (*överstelöjtnant*) and amphibious officer (*amfibieofficer*) in the Swedish Amphibious Corps, serving at the Naval Tactical Staff (*marintaktiska staben*) of Swedish Armed Forces Headquarters, where he planned naval operations. The same profile named their three children as Anna, Johan and Carl, then aged 17, 14 and 8. *Expressen* reported the same outline: she was married to an officer and had three children.

The appointment raised the question of whether he could remain in the forces she would lead. She said he was prepared to change jobs if that was required. *Dagens Nyheter* reported that Chief of Defence Sverker Göranson considered that Anders Enström could keep his duties as a staff officer at headquarters, and *Aftonbladet* reported that Armed Forces lawyers had reviewed the case and reached the same conclusion. Anders Enström told *Aftonbladet* that the couple had handled related questions separately before and that he did not see a problem. The paper also noted that her brother-in-law Per Bill, a Moderate Party member of the Riksdag, was then vice chair of the Committee on the Constitution. Its chair, Peter Eriksson of the Green Party, said a member leaves the meeting when a conflict of interest arises.

*Aftonbladet* called her the middle sibling in a family in which both siblings and her brother-in-law were active in the Moderate Party. Her younger sister, Louise Landerholm Bill, was described as a local Moderate politician in Uppsala and as Per Bill's wife. Her elder brother is Henrik Landerholm. His later tenure as national security adviser, and the case that followed, are covered in the section on the Landerholm affair.

### Residence

She lives in Vaxholm, in Vaxholm Municipality. In April 2012 *Aftonbladet* reported that the home was a villa of 161 square metres there, and at the press conference on her appointment she said she lived in Vaxholm. In [Sveriges Television](/organizations/sveriges-television)'s 2026 election compass, asked which municipality she lived in, she answered Vaxholm.

## Dated facts

_No published facts on this page yet._

## Methodology

https://factrail.ai/methodology

Canonical: https://factrail.ai/people/karin-enstrom