Ylva Anna Maria Lindh (19 June 1957 – 11 September 2003) was a Swedish Social Democratic politician, Chairman of the Social Democratic Youth League 1984-1990, Member of Parliament 1982-1985 and 1998-2003. Ascending to the government as Minister of Environment in 1994, she was elevated to Minister for Foreign Affairs by Prime Minister Göran Persson in 1998 and was widely considered his designated successor as Party Chairman and Prime Minister (neither of which posts had ever been occupied by a woman), speculations that came to a brutal end upon her assassination on 10 September 2003. Anna Lindh was married to Bo Holmberg, the Governor of Södermanland, her home constituency for over twenty years, with whom she had two sons.

Lindh was born to Staffan and Nancy Lindh in Enskede, a southeastern suburb of Stockholm, but grew up in Grillby, just outside of Enköping. She became involved in politics at age twelve, when she joined the local branch of the Swedish Social Democratic Youth League, protesting against the Vietnam war as one of her top priorities.

Hans Göran Persson (Swedish pronunciation: [ˈʝœːran ˈpæːʂɔn]) (born 20 January 1949) was the Prime Minister of Sweden from 1996 to 2006 and the leader of the Swedish Social Democratic Party from 1996 to 2007. He was Minister for Finance from 1994 to 1996.

Conceding defeat in the September 2006 general election, he announced that he would resign as party leader, and Mona Sahlin was elected to succeed him as party leader in March 2007. Since August 2007 he has worked as a part time corporate lobbyist for the JKL Group.^{[citation needed]}

Persson was born in Vingåker in Södermanland, Sweden, in a working-class home. He has in recent years revealed that he wanted to become a priest as a young man; however, he applied to the college in Örebro where he took courses in social science (mainly sociology). He completed 80 college credits (120 ECTS credits) in the subject before he left the college in 1971 without graduating. According to himself he had at the time almost completed an education in social and political sciences.^{[citation needed]} As the college later received credentials as a full university, the renamed Örebro University gave him an honorary PhD in medicine in February 2005, an award that provoked some controversy.

Sven Olof Joachim Palme (Swedish:  Olof Palme) (30 January 1927 – 28 February 1986) was a Swedish politician. A longtime protegé of Prime Minister Tage Erlander, Palme led the Swedish Social Democratic Party from 1969 to his assassination, and was a two-term Prime Minister of Sweden, heading a Privy Council Government from 1969 to 1976 and a cabinet government from 1982 until his death. Electoral defeats in 1976 and 1979 marked the end of Social Democratic hegemony in Swedish politics, which had seen 40 years of unbroken rule by the party. While leader of opposition, he parted domestic and international interests and served as special mediator of the United Nations in the Iran–Iraq War, but returned to power as Prime Minister after stunning electoral victories in 1982 and 1985.

A pivotal, renowned, and polarizing figure domestically as well as in international politics since the 1960s until his death, Palme was steadfast in his non-alignment policy towards the superpowers, juxtaposed to support of numerous third world liberation movements following the process of decolonization including, most controversially, economic and vocal support for a number of non-democratic anti-imperialist regimes. In 1975, he was the first head of a democratic government to visit Cuba after its revolution, holding a speech on Plaza de la Revolución praising Fidel Castro's administration and issuing a joint statement vindicating Pol Pot's takeover in Cambodia.

Mona Ingeborg Sahlin (Swedish pronunciation: [ˈmoːna saˈliːn] née Andersson; born 9 March 1957) is a Swedish politician and the former leader of the Swedish Social Democratic Party.

Sahlin has been a Member of Parliament, representing Stockholm County, from 1982 to 1996 and again since 2002. She has also held various ministerial posts in the Swedish government from 1990 to 1991, from 1994 to 1995 and from 1998 to 2006. Sahlin was elected new leader of the Social Democratic Party on 17 March 2007, succeeding Göran Persson who resigned as leader following the defeat in the 2006 general election. Sahlin is the first female leader of the Swedish Social Democratic Party and the only one never elected Prime Minister together with Claes Tholin and Håkan Juholt.

On 14 November 2010, following another electoral defeat for the socialist parties, she announced her intent to step down as party chairman in early 2011.

Sahlin was born Mona Ingeborg Andersson in Sollefteå, Västernorrland County, Sweden. Her father, Hans Andersson, worked at different ungdomsvårdsskolor (community homes or reformatories), forcing the family to move frequently. In the mid 1960s they moved to Järla in Stockholm County where they remained. Her father later became an advisor to former Prime Minister Ingvar Carlsson.