Birgitta Ohlsson has been seen as a clear shining star within the Liberal Party, formerly the People's Party, and has been both EU Minister and party leadership candidate.
On Wednesday, she appeared at a press conference together with Center Party leader Elisabeth Thand Ringqvist and announced that she had changed parties.
I stand here today for three reasons, my three Ts. My tumors, Trump and the Tidö Agreement, she said.
Seriously ill
Ohlsson has suffered from aggressive breast cancer and leukemia and underwent a stem cell transplant. The latest blood tests were stable, but she will never be 100 percent healthy.
When you live close to death, your values and the society you leave behind for your daughters become extra important, she said.
She is strongly critical of the Liberals' choice to be in government with the SD. She also points to what she describes as Donald Trump's increasingly authoritarian rule in the United States.
If you give power to authoritarian leaders, you get authoritarian politics. It's simple. It has also happened in Sweden. For the first time in modern times, the Liberals, the Christian Democrats and the Moderates have brought a social conservative party with a nationalist basis to power.
Birgitta Ohlsson already said around the 2022 parliamentary election that she had voted for C instead of her previous party. But she never expected she would return as an elected representative.
Many are sad
Now she is in fourth place on the Stockholm list, where C currently has three mandates, but many believe she will be able to personally win a seat in the Riksdag.
Ohlsson has received many calls from disappointed Liberals since Friday.
There are many who are sad and upset about this decision. I'm not really surprised myself, because I saw it coming.
Center Party leader Elisabeth Thand Ringqvist welcomes Ohlsson into the party and she believes there will be more party changes in the coming days.
There is a clear longing for a liberal movement that stands for faith in the future, openness, tolerance and trust. The Center Party is that movement, she said.
"Birgitta Ohlsson has meant a lot to the Liberals. I am happy that she has chosen to take the step to start getting involved in Swedish politics again and wish her luck," wrote the Liberal Party leader Simona Mohamsson in a comment.
Birgitta Ohlsson began her political career as chairwoman of Liberal Students Stockholm and was later elected to the party board of the Liberal Youth Association - an organization which she later chaired.
In 2010, Ohlsson was appointed Minister for EU Affairs. Later that year, after the election, she was also given responsibility for democracy and consumer affairs. When the Alliance lost the 2014 election, she resigned as minister, but became the party's most voted-for politician in Stockholm.
In 2017, she challenged incumbent party leader Jan Björklund for the party chairmanship, but chose to give up after failing to gather enough support.
Five years ago, Birgitta Ohlsson was diagnosed with breast cancer and two years ago she was diagnosed with leukemia.
