politician
. A long-time protegé of Prime Minister Tage Erlander
, Palme led the Swedish Social Democratic Party
from 1969 to his assassination, and was a two-term Prime Minister of Sweden
, heading a Privy Council Government
from 1969 to 1976 and a cabinet government
from 1982 until his death. His electoral defeat in 1976
marked the end of 40 unbroken years of Social Democratic government, and he was forced into opposition. Serving as special mediator of the United Nations
in the Iran-Iraq war
, he returned to power in the 1982 election
.
A pivotal, renowned, and polarizing figure domestically as well as in international politics since the 1960s
until his death, Palme held steadfast to traditional Swedish non-alignment
juxtaposed to vocal, political, and financial support of third world liberation movements following the process of decolonization
, including, most controversially, several Marxist and totalitarian regimes.
The rights of democracy are not reserved for a select group within society, they are the rights of all the people.
Human beings will find a balanced situation when they do good things not because God says it, but because they feel like doing them.
Apartheid cannot be reformed. It has to be eliminated.
Apartheid is a unique form of evil. It is a form of tyranny that burn marks an individual from birth only because of the color of her skin. The fate of a child is determined at the very instant of conception.
My generation is haunted by the images of the Jewish children in the ghettos and the concentration camps. The crimes committed against them caused us grief that haunts us through our lives. But for the very same raison d'être we feel outraged by the images of persecuted Palestinian children, and this time it is Israel that is responsible for the offenses.
Werner [Swedish communist leader] is getting used to publicly denouncing the misdeeds of his fellow party members around the World. But he should perhaps start asking himself if it is not Leninism itself that is to blame. Parlament speech, 1980, on the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.