Alice Bah Kuhnke


Alice Bah Kuhnke is Swedish politician who served as the Swedish Minister of Culture and Democracy From October 2014 to January 2019. Formerly, she was a television presenter. She also helped found the think tank Sektor3.
She was elected Member of the European Parliament in the 2019 European Parliament election in Sweden.

Biography

Bah grew up in Horda in Småland, Sweden, the daughter of a Gambian father and a Swedish mother. She attended a track-and-field-oriented high school in Växjö and was one of the country's best female sprinters in the late 1980s, with the 200-meter dash her speciality.

Television career

Bah's television career began with SVT's "Disney Club" in 1992. Between 1998 and 1999, she had her own talk show at TV4 and many other television assignments, including the current-event show "Kalla fakta".

Political career

Already in 1994, Bah campaigned actively for her country to join the EU in a referendum. After leaving television to study political science, she headed a philanthropic fund at the Swedish insurance company Skandia. From 2004 to 2007, she worked as Secretary General of the fair trade organization Rättvisemärkt.
Bah was a member of the Swedish Church synod from 2006 until 2010, a member of the board of the Royal Dramatic Theater, and Vice President of YMCA-YWCA Sweden.
In September 2009, Bah took the position of manager of environmental quality and corporate social responsibility at ÅF. Alongside that job, she served on the board of a small internet design firm, Doberman.
On 3 October 2014, Bah was appointed Minister of Culture in the Löfven Cabinet. In addition to her role in government, she served as the Green Party's representative at the European Green Party from 2016.

Member of the European Parliament, 2019–present

In 2019, Bah stood down as minister to lead her party's list for the European elections. In parliament, she has since been serving as deputy chairwoman of the Greens–European Free Alliance group, under the leadership of co-chairs Ska Keller and Philippe Lamberts. She also joined the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs and the Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality. In addition to her committee assignments, she is a member of the European Parliament Intergroup on LGBT Rights.

Personal life

In her late teens, Bah was engaged for two years to long jump Olympic finalist and World Silver Medalist Mattias Sunneborn. In 1998, she married TV personality Henrik Johnsson, from whom she was divorced in 2002. The following year, she married actor and singer Johannes Bah Kuhnke, with whom she has three daughters.