Lars Ohly - Early Life and Career

Early Life and Career

Lars Ohly was born in Spånga, Stockholm County. His father, like all his forefathers for six generations, was a priest. He grew up in various places around Stockholm. After finishing his gymnasium (secondary) education in 1978, he started working at Statens Järnvägar (Swedish State Railways), where he later became a conductor (Swedish: tågmästare). He is still employed at SJ but is on leave of absence since 1994.

Ohly became a member of the Liberal Youth of Sweden, the youth wing of the Liberal People's Party, in 1970 but left shortly afterwards and became a communist. He joined the Communist Youth in 1978 and the Left Party in 1979. He became a member of board of the Communist Youth in 1980, was elected as a substitute of the party board in 1987 and became a full member of the party board in 1990. From 1994 to 2000 he was party secretary and in 2004 he was elected party chairman. He has been a Member of Parliament since 1998.

Lars Ohly was in 2008 nominated for the award Kurd friend of the year (Swedish: Årets kurdvän 2008). Årets kurdvän is one of the awards presented annually by the Kurdish gala jury that celebrates the active and successful Kurds and Kurdish friends in Sweden.

In August 2011 Ohly announced his resignation. He was elected party chairman on 20 February 2004, succeeding Ulla Hoffmann.

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