Damberg joined the
Swedish Social Democratic Youth League in the late 1980s and served as a member of the board of the organization between 1993 and 1997. He also served as a member of the
municipal council in Solna Municipality between 1991 and 2002. In this capacity, Damberg put forward a 2016 bill stipulating at least 40 percent of board members of listed firms should be women by 2019 at the latest; however, the government later decided to not go ahead with the proposal. Also in 2016, Damberg approved
Vattenfall’s decision to sell its loss-making lignite coal mines and associated power plants in Germany to Czech investor
EPH. In 2018, he approved an application from
Nord Stream 2 to lay two gas pipelines through its economic zone in the Baltic Sea. In August 2018, Damberg visited the crime scene where
Karolin Hakim was killed by a gang member. Damberg also attended the
Bilderberg Meeting in 2015 in Telfs-Buchen, Austria.
Minister for Home Affairs Damberg was later appointed
minister for home affairs on 21 January 2019 in the
second Löfven Cabinet. Early in his tenure, Damberg coordinated the Swedish government’s efforts seeking support from European allies for a new international tribunal to prosecute
Islamic State fighters and military personnel for war crimes perpetrated in Iraq and Syria, modelled on the
International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and the
International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. Among others, he visited counterparts in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands to lobby support for the proposal. When Dan Eliasson, the head of
Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency (MSB), was reported to have holidayed with family on Gran Canaria in violation of guidelines propagated by his own agency against unnecessary travel amid the
COVID-19 pandemic in Sweden, Damberg asked for his resignation. Also during his time in office, Damberg led efforts in 2021 to give police greater powers to access mobile communications data, including conversations using apps like
Facebook Messenger and
WhatsApp. That same year, he appointed a commission to look at measures including the expansion of secret, preventative surveillance of suspects, currently only allowed in cases related to national security.
Minister of Finance Damberg was appointed Minister of Finance on 30 November 2021 after
Magdalena Andersson became prime minister. == Other activities ==