Ringholm was born in
Falköping, a town in the west of Sweden, and grew up in a working-class family. He lacks higher education, and dropped out of high school after failing both Maths and English. Like many Swedish Social Democratic politicians of his generation, Ringholm started his political career in the
Swedish Social Democratic Youth League (SSU), an organisation he led 1967–1972. As chairman of the Social Democratic Youth League, Ringholm was known for his radical left-wing views. Among other things, he advocated the
nationalization of private-owned Swedish bank institutions and Swedish economic support to the
National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam (FNL), the government of
North Vietnam, the
Pathet Lao in Laos and the
Khmer Rouge in Cambodia. After stepping down from chairman of SSU, Ringholm worked as a political adviser at the Ministries of the Interior and Labour. He also became active in the local politics of
Stockholm. From 1973 he was a member of the
Stockholm County Council, and two years later he was elected to the executive committee of the Stockholm party branch. In 1976 he became a director at the Ministry of Education and Science, and worked in the government administration until he became Transportation Commissioner of the
Stockholm County from 1983. From 1997 he was the director-general of the
Swedish Labour Market Board (AMS), until Prime Minister
Göran Persson unexpectedly named him to succeed
Erik Åsbrink as Minister for Finance in 1999. On 21 October 2004 Göran Persson announced a restructuring of his government, in which Ringholm was moved from the Ministry of Finance to become Deputy Prime Minister, Minister for Policy Coordination and Minister for Sport. The reason cited by Persson was Ringholm was not interested in continuing as Minister of Finance following the coming 2006 general elections. His successor was
Pär Nuder. Following the resignation of
Laila Freivalds on 21 March 2006, Ringholm was temporarily acting as
Minister for Foreign Affairs until 27 March, when he was replaced by
Carin Jämtin who also held the post temporarily until the new Minister for Foreign Affairs,
Jan Eliasson, took office on 24 April. == Private ==