Ulf Kristersson was born in Lund, Skåne, to Lars Kristersson and Karin Kristersson. The family moved to Torshälla outside Eskilstuna five years later. In his youth Ulf Kristersson was a troupe gymnast. Kristersson finished secondary school at S:t Eskils gymnasium in Eskilstuna and completed a degree in economics at Uppsala University. In connection with the general election of 1985, he was employed as a campaigner at MUF in Sörmland. On 26 November 1988, he rose to become new Chairman of MUF succeeding Beatrice Ask. In 1991, the centre-rightBildt Cabinet took power and soon Kristersson become a vocal critic of the government's crisis agreement with the Social Democrats. In 1992, he was challenged as chairman by Fredrik Reinfeldt, who is the former leader of the Moderate Party. The congress was preceded by considerable ideological divisions between Libertarians and Conservatives. All this erupted at the congress in Lycksele, which came to be known as the Battle of Lycksele. Kristersson, the Libertarian alternative, lost narrowly. It is said that his loss caused his withdrawal from front-line politics and he was subsequently known as part of "Lost Generation" of the Moderate Party.
In 1991, Kristersson became a Member of the Riksdag. He served in the Social Security Committee. He developed a friendship with the former party leader, Gösta Bohman, who in some respects also supported his criticism of the Bildt Cabinet. From 1995 to 1998, Kristersson was chief of marketing at Timbro.
Career outside politics
Kristersson left politics in April 2000, feeling that the new party leader Bo Lundgren declined his services. Kristersson worked for two years in the private sector, mainly as communications director and VP for the internet consultancy Adcore, a dotcom crash casualty.
In 2006, he was appointed Vice Mayor in Stockholm responsible for the social welfare and labour division. Kristersson was also asked by Fredrik Reinfeldt to lead the committee responsible for developing a new family policy for the party. He immediately caused controversy by suggesting that fathers must take a month of paternity leave for the family to receive all benefits. This was clearly in conflict with traditional Moderate Party policy, which has centred on individual choice.
Following the election of Anna Kinberg Batra as Moderate leader and Opposition leader, she appointed him as Shadow Finance Minister in December 2014.
Leader of the Moderate Party (2017– )
resigned as leader of the Moderate Party on25 August 2017. On 1 September 2017, Kristersson publicly decided to run for leadership. He became Party Leader on 1 October 2017. The party saw a sharp increase in support in the polls, compared to the record low numbers under his predecessor Batra. He has a harsher stance against immigration than his predecessors.
2018–2019 Government formation
In September 2018, incumbent PM Stefan Löfven was ousted. Kristersson expressed hope of becoming the next PM. On 2 October 2018, he was designated by SpeakerAndreas Norlén to form a new government. He initially sought to form a government coalition involving the Alliance parties with support from the Social Democrats; on 9 October 2018 he announced that the Social Democrats had rejected all further talks on agreements and that he would now seek other ways to form a new government. On 14 October 2018 he announced that he was not able to form a new government under current circumstances. On 5 November 2018, Speaker Andreas Norlén proposed Ulf Kristersson as Prime Minister following breakdowns in all other government negotiations. On 14 November 2018, the Riksdag rejected Kristersson's bid to become Prime Minister by a vote of 195 to 154. It was the first time ever that a speaker's proposal for Prime Minister lost such a vote and the first time in 40 years that centre-right parties vetoed a centre-right candidate for Prime Minister.
