Alice Bah Kuhnke (née Bah; 21 December 1971) is a Swedish politician for the Green Party who is currently a Member of the European Parliament since 2019. Previously she served as the Minister of Culture and Democracy From October 2014 to January 2019. Before going into politics, she was a television presenter. She also helped found the think tank Sektor3.[2][3]

Alice Bah Kuhnke
Vice-Chair of the Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance
Assumed office
2 July 2019
Co-chairsSka Keller
Philippe Lamberts
Serving alongsideGwendoline Delbos-Corfield
Bas Eickhout
Terry Reintke
Molly Scott Cato
Alyn Smith
Ernest Urtasun
Member of the European Parliament
Assumed office
2 July 2019
ConstituencySweden
Minister for Culture and Democracy
In office
3 October 2014 – 21 January 2019
Prime MinisterStefan Löfven
Preceded byLena Adelsohn Liljeroth (Culture)
Birgitta Ohlsson (Democracy)
Succeeded byAmanda Lind
Personal details
Born
Alice Bah

(1971-12-21) 21 December 1971 (age 52)
Malmö, Sweden[1]
Political partyGreen Party
Spouses
(m. 1998; div. 2002)
(m. 2003; div. 2023)
Children3
WebsiteAlice Bah Kuhnke (mp)

She was elected Member of the European Parliament in the 2019 European Parliament election in Sweden.[4]

Biography

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Bah grew up in Horda in Jönköping, Sweden, the daughter of a Gambian father and a Swedish mother.[citation needed] 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.[5][6]

Television career

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Bah's television career began with SVT's "Disney Club" in 1992. Between 1998 and 1999, she had her own talk show at TV4[7] and many other television assignments, including the current-event show "Kalla fakta".[8]

On 16 January 2001, She hosted the televised music festival Artister mot nazister in Globen.[9]

Private and public sector career

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Alice Bah Kuhnke was Director General for the Swedish Agency for Youth and Civil Society 2013–2014.[10] She also worked as General Secretary for the NGO Fairtraide Sweden (Rättvisemärkt) 2004-2007[11] In September 2009, Bah took the position of manager of environmental quality and corporate social responsibility at ÅF.[12] Alongside that job, she served on the board of a small[13] internet design firm, Doberman.[14]

Political career

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In 1994, Bah campaigned actively for her country to join the EU in a referendum.[15] After leaving television to study political science, she headed a philanthropic fund at the Swedish insurance company Skandia.[1]

Bah was a member of the Swedish Church synod from 2006 until 2010,[16] a member of the board of the Royal Dramatic Theatre,[17] and Vice President of YMCA-YWCA Sweden.[18]

On 3 October 2014, Bah was appointed Minister of Culture and Democracy in the Löfven Cabinet.[19] 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)

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Alice Bah Kuhnke presenting herself in a video produced by Heinrich Böll Foundation/Green European Foundation.

In 2019, Bah stood down as minister to lead her party's list for the European elections.[15] In parliament, she has since been serving as deputy chairwoman of the Greens–European Free Alliance (Greens/EFA) group, under the leadership of co-chairs Ska Keller (2019–2022), Philippe Lamberts (2019–2024), Terry Reintke (since 2022) and Bas Eickhout (since 2024).[20][21] 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, Bah is a member of the European Parliament Intergroup on Anti-Corruption,[22] the European Parliament Intergroup on Anti-Racism and Diversity,[23] the European Parliament Intergroup on LGBT Rights[24] and the European Parliament Intergroup on the Welfare and Conservation of Animals.[25]

In January 2022, she was the Greens/EFA candidate as a new President of the European Parliament.[26] She was not elected, having garnered only 101 votes in the first round.[27]

In September 2022, Bah was the recipient of the Environment and Climate Action Award at The Parliament Magazine's annual MEP Awards.[28] At the 2024 MEP Awards ceremony, Bah was one of twenty MEPs to be given a "Rising Star" award.[29]

Personal life

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In her late teens, Bah was engaged for two years to long jump Olympic finalist and World Silver Medalist Mattias Sunneborn.[30] In 1998, she married TV personality Henrik Johnsson, from whom she was divorced in 2002.[31] The following year, she married actor and singer Johannes Kuhnke,[31] with whom she has three daughters.[30]

References

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  1. ^ a b "Cv Alice Bah Kuhnke". Regeringskansliet. 8 October 2014. Archived from the original on 1 May 2016.
  2. ^ Cecilia Jacobsson (3 November 2008). "Nu går hon in i en helt ny sektor" (in Swedish). DN.se. Retrieved 5 April 2010.
  3. ^ Andersson, Elisabet (3 October 2014). "Alice Bah Kuhnke (MP) är ny kulturminister". Svenska Dagbladet. Archived from the original on 4 October 2014. Retrieved 5 October 2014.
  4. ^ Final results from European Parliament elections in Sweden Archived 21 September 2019 at the Wayback Machine Read 2019-05-31 (in Swedish)
  5. ^ Sverige-bästa 1986, Svenska Friidrottsförbundets officiella friidrottsstatistik (Sweden's best 1986 – official statistics of the Swedish Athletics Federation) (in Swedish). CEWE-förlaget. 1987.
  6. ^ Sverige-bästa 1988, Svenska Friidrottsförbundets officiella friidrottsstatistik (Sweden's best 1988 – official statistics of the Swedish Athletics Federation) (in Swedish). CEWE-förlaget. 1989.
  7. ^ "Alice Bah Kuhnke - Värnamo kommun". Varnamo.se. 9 March 2008. Archived from the original on 21 August 2010. Retrieved 5 April 2010.
  8. ^ "Alice Bah Kuhnke: "Studierna gjorde att jag slapp jobba med TV"". Archived from the original on 6 October 2014. Retrieved 5 October 2014.
  9. ^ "Hela Sverige : artister mot nazister | Svensk mediedatabas (SMDB)". smdb.kb.se. Archived from the original on 19 January 2022. Retrieved 19 January 2022.
  10. ^ "Alice Bah Kuhnke ny ledare för Ungdomsstyrelsen". Dagen (in Swedish). 23 May 2013. Archived from the original on 18 January 2022. Retrieved 12 January 2022.
  11. ^ "Alice Bah sätter fart på Rättvisemärkt". kollega.se (in Swedish). 29 September 2004. Archived from the original on 18 January 2022. Retrieved 12 January 2022.
  12. ^ "ÅF recruits Alice Bah Kuhnke as VP Sustainability & CSR" (Press release). Ad Hoc News. 29 April 2009. Archived from the original on 21 December 2016. Retrieved 5 April 2010.
  13. ^ "Doberman on Agency Spotter". Agency Spotter. Archived from the original on 20 December 2016. Retrieved 11 December 2016.
  14. ^ "Resumé: Alice Bah till Doberman". Archived from the original on 6 October 2014. Retrieved 5 October 2014.
  15. ^ a b Charlie Duxbury (May 23, 2019), Big names aim to swap national politics for EU career Archived 25 May 2019 at the Wayback Machine Politico Europe.
  16. ^ "Val till Kyrkomöte - valresultat". Archived from the original on 22 September 2013. Retrieved 5 October 2014.
  17. ^ "Dramaten". Dramatens blogg. Archived from the original on 20 June 2010.
  18. ^ "KFUM Sverige". kfuk-kfum.se. Archived from the original on 31 January 2016. Retrieved 24 January 2016.
  19. ^ "Alice Bah Kuhnke ny kulturminister". DN.SE. 3 October 2014. Archived from the original on 5 October 2014. Retrieved 5 October 2014.
  20. ^ Greens/EFA group positions elected Archived 15 June 2019 at the Wayback Machine Greens–European Free Alliance (Greens/EFA), press release of June 12, 2019.
  21. ^ Greens/EFA Group elects bureau Greens–European Free Alliance (Greens/EFA), press release of 25 June 2024.
  22. ^ Intergroup on Anti-Corruption Archived 15 December 2022 at the Wayback Machine European Parliament.
  23. ^ Intergroup on Anti-Racism and Diversity Archived 5 November 2022 at the Wayback Machine European Parliament.
  24. ^ Members Archived 14 May 2020 at the Wayback Machine European Parliament Intergroup on LGBTI Rights.
  25. ^ Members Archived 31 August 2019 at the Wayback Machine European Parliament Intergroup on the Welfare and Conservation of Animals.
  26. ^ "alice bah kuhnke kandidat talman - Bing". www.bing.com. Archived from the original on 18 January 2022. Retrieved 12 January 2022.
  27. ^ "Roberta Metsola elected new President of the European Parliament | News | European Parliament". www.europarl.europa.eu. 18 January 2022. Archived from the original on 19 January 2022. Retrieved 18 January 2022.
  28. ^ "MEP Awards: Winners 2022". The Parliament Magazine. 21 September 2022. Archived from the original on 24 August 2023. Retrieved 24 August 2023.
  29. ^ "MEP Awards 2024 - The Rising Stars". The Parliament Magazine. 21 March 2024. Archived from the original on 26 March 2024. Retrieved 26 March 2024.
  30. ^ a b "Sunneborns okända förlovning – med Alice Bah Kuhnke". Expressen. 3 June 2018. Archived from the original on 12 June 2018. Retrieved 9 September 2018.
  31. ^ a b "Alice Bah har gift sig - med skådis". Aftonbladet (in Swedish). 5 August 2003. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 11 June 2016.
Political offices
Preceded by Minister for Culture
2014–2019
Succeeded by
Preceded by Minister for Democracy
2014–2019
Succeeded by
  NODES
INTERN 1
Note 1