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Did The Swedish Government Just Epically Troll Donald Trump With This All-Woman Photo?

"Sweden is a feminist government and this is a very important law that we just decided on."

Swedish Deputy Prime Minister Isabella Lovin has issued this picture of her signing proposed climate change legislation, surrounded by her all-female team.

The Swedish government just announced a new climate change law, requiring the country to end greenhouse gas emissions by 2045.

The proposed legislation has wide support in Sweden from almost all major political parties across the political spectrum. If passed it will require all future governments to provide updates on how they are tackling climate change and inform Parliament on whether they are on track to the meet the target of zero net greenhouse gas emissions over the next three decades.

But many people noticed the all-female picture looks an awful lot like an attempt to troll Donald Trump, after pictures of the US president signing an executive order effectively restricting access to abortion while surrounded by male advisers went viral.


Lovin, who represents the Swedish Green party, was coy when asked whether the all-female photo was a direct attack on US policy.

"You can interpret it as you want," Lovin's spokesperson told BuzzFeed News. "It's more that Sweden is a feminist government and this is a very important law that we just decided on."

"We need climate leadership in the world today. And to make the Paris agreement happen we need climate leadership."

"I would ask everyone to make their own interpretation."

Quite a few people already have.

Compare and contrast: Trump restricts women's rights; Sweden's Isabella Lovin pushes world's most ambitious (?) cli… https://t.co/yCenJ51qW5

While Donald Trump has been criticised for the low level of female representation in his proposed cabinet, Sweden has 12 female ministers and 12 male ministers.

Trump has also consistently criticised the science behind climate change and during the campaign said he would look "very closely" at the international Paris agreement, raising the prospect that he could be tempted to pull out of the worldwide deal to tackle greenhouse gas emissions.

As yet there is no indication he is preparing to withdraw from the agreement, although this week Myron Ebell, a climate change sceptic who worked on Trump's transition team, was quoted as saying he expected the president to withdraw from the deal at some point as he is "pretty clear that the problem or the crisis has been overblown and overstated".