Ibrahim Baylan


Ibrahim Baylan is a Swedish politician who has been Minister for Enterprise since 2019. He previously served as Minister for Energy and Minister for Policy Coordination in the Swedish Government.
He has been a member of the Swedish Riksdag since 2006, and was deputy chairman in the education committée and spokesperson of educational issues for the Swedish Social Democratic Party from 2012 to 2014. From 2004–2006 he served as Minister for Schools.

Early life and career

He studied economics at Umeå University and was engaged in student politics. In 1997 he became the chair of the Swedish Social Democratic Youth League in Umeå. The same year, he was elected chair of the Umeå Union of Students and also became a member of the municipal school board.
From 2000 Baylan worked as an ombudsman for the Swedish Union of Commercial Salaried Employees. He ran unsuccessfully on the Social Democratic ballot for the 2004 European Parliament election. Later in the same year, he was appointed to be Minister for School by Prime Minister Göran Persson, becoming the first non-European immigrant to become a member of a Swedish government cabinet. 2007 he was elected chairman of the Swedish parliamentary committee of transportation and communication. 2009 he became secretary general of the Swedish Social Democratic party. He resigned in March 2011.
As school minister he was involved in a controversy about a report from the Swedish National Agency for Education that was withdrawn after criticism from minister Baylan. He was reported to the Swedish Committee on the Constitution and called to a hearing on 12 April 2005.