Editing Göran Persson (section)

=== National politics ===
In 1989, he was made [[Minister for Schools (Sweden)|minister of schools]] in the Ministry of Education during the first [[Ingvar Carlsson]] cabinet, until the [[Elections in Sweden|election]] in 1991 when the Social Democrats were voted out of office. Persson was one of the brains behind the "Persson-plan" which was presented in 1994 targeting the prevailing economic situation. Sweden at the time still suffered from the recession which began during the early nineties, high unemployment rates and a huge budget deficit. Prime minister [[Carl Bildt]] relied at the time on a fragile coalition between the [[Moderate Party]] and three other liberal or conservative parties with a strained degree of cooperation. The outcome of the 1994 election proved a success for the Social Democrats when they gained more than 45 per cent of the votes.

Upon returning to government in 1994, Persson was made minister for finance, a post he held until 1996. As minister for finance much of his job was focused on attaining a sound financial balance in the economy. Persson often emphasizes that he "cleaned up" after the Bildt government.<ref>[http://www.riksdagen.se/Webbnav/index.aspx?nid=101&bet=2004/05:140&guid=%7B1285BE57-F835-4CD7-B169-B361F1462A64%7D Riksdagens protokoll 2004/05:140], Anf. 19, 15 June 2004.</ref><ref>Göran Persson, [http://www.dn.se/DNet/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=572&a=577810&previousRenderType=2 "Ingen tillträdande regering har haft bättre förutsättningar"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071001091048/http://www.dn.se/DNet/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=572&a=577810&previousRenderType=2 |date=2007-10-01 }}, DN Debatt, 5 October 2006.</ref>

During his time at the Finance Ministry he followed 10 "Commandments" as his guiding lights in his job. Among of these "Commandments" was one in particular which became famous in Sweden, ''"one who is in debt is not free"''  ( in Swedish : ''"Den som är satt i skuld är icke fri"'' )