Jan Björklund

Jan Arne Björklund (born 18 April 1962) is a Swedish Liberal politician.

[2] His father, Arne, worked in the textile industry; his mother, Ragna, came to Sweden from Norway as a war refugee in 1944.

[2] After he had completed upper secondary education (gymnasium) in 1982, Björklund enlisted in the Swedish Armed Forces, and earned the rank of officer in 1985.

[2] He then served in the royal Svea Life Guards in Stockholm, from which he retired as a major in 1994 to start a new career in politics.

[2] In the run-up to both the 2002 and 2006 general elections, Björklund was chairman of the centre-right Alliance for Sweden's working group on education policy.

[6] In January 2009, Björklund criticised the downsizing in recent years of the Swedish Armed Forces.

During an interview on an SVT news program, he stated: "After the last year's development in Russia, and the war in Georgia, Sweden must be able to mobilize more soldiers than we can today.

Björklund 2017
Björklund and his wife at Skansen , Stockholm, in 2010