member_of_political_party lena sommestad
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden ( Swedish : ), is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe . It borders Norway to the west and Finland to the east , and is connected to Denmark in the southwest by a bridge - tunnel across the Öresund . At , Sweden is the third - largest country in the European ___MASK82___ by area , with a total population of 10 . 0 million . Sweden consequently has a low population density of , with the highest concentration in the southern half of the country . Approximately 85 % of the population lives in urban areas . The ___MASK90___ , ( SAP ; literally , " Social Democratic Workers ' Party of Sweden "), contesting elections as the " Arbetarepartiet  Socialdemokraterna " (' The Workers ' Party  The Social Democrats '), usually referred to just as the ' Social Democrats ' (" Socialdemokraterna "); is the oldest and largest political party in Sweden . The current party leader since 2012 is Stefan Löfven ; he has also been Prime Minister of Sweden since 2014 . Hans Göran Persson ( born 20 January 1949 ) served as Prime Minister of Sweden from 1996 to 2006 and was leader of the ___MASK90___ from 1996 to 2007 . Lena Sommestad ( born 3 April 1957 in Börje , Uppsala Municipality ) is a Swedish Social Democratic politician and economic historian . She was Minister for the Environment in the Ministry of Sustainable Development in the Cabinet of Göran Persson from 2002 - 2006 . Sommestad studied social sciences at Uppsala University and received a PhD degree in 1992 . From 1998 to 2002 she was the managing director of the Swedish Institute for Futures Studies ( Institutet för framtidsstudier ) . She had not held a politically elected office before Prime Minister Göran Persson made her Minister for the Environment in 2002 .