Biography

Ylva Anna Maria Lindh (19 June 1957 – 11 September 2003) was a Swedish politician, diplomat, and lawyer who served as Minister for Foreign Affairs from 1998 until her assassination in 2003. A leading figure of the Swedish Social Democratic Party, Lindh was a Member of the Riksdag representing Södermanland County from 1982 to 1985 and again from 1998 to 2003. On 10 September 2003, four days before a referendum on replacing the Swedish krona with the euro as currency, Lindh was stabbed by Mijailo Mijailović at the NK department store in central Stockholm; she died the following morning at Karolinska University Hospital. She had been seen as a likely candidate to succeed Göran Persson as Social Democratic party leader. Her greatest commitment was to international cooperation and solidarity, as well as to environmental issues. She worked on these issues throughout her career, serving as Environme Minister from 1994 to 1998.