Olof Palme
Overview
 
Sven Olof Joachim Palme (30 January 1927 28 February 1986) was a Swedish
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

 politician
Politician
A politician, political leader, or political figure is an individual who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making...

. A long-time protegé of Prime Minister Tage Erlander
Tage Erlander
was a Swedish politician. He was the leader of the Swedish Social Democratic Party and Prime Minister of Sweden from 1946 to 1969...

, Palme led the Swedish Social Democratic Party
Swedish Social Democratic Party
The Swedish Social Democratic Workers' Party, , contesting elections as 'the Workers' Party – the Social Democrats' , or sometimes referred to just as 'the Social Democrats' and most commonly as Sossarna ; is the oldest and largest political party in Sweden. The party was founded in 1889...

 from 1969 to his assassination, and was a two-term Prime Minister of Sweden
Prime Minister of Sweden
The Prime Minister is the head of government in the Kingdom of Sweden. Before the creation of the office of a Prime Minister in 1876, Sweden did not have a head of government separate from its head of state, namely the King, in whom the executive authority was vested...

, heading a Privy Council Government
Privy Council of Sweden
The High Council of Sweden or Council of the Realm consisted originally of those men of noble, common and clergical background, that the king saw fit for advisory service...

 from 1969 to 1976 and a cabinet government
Government of Sweden
The Government of the Kingdom of Sweden is the supreme executive authority of Sweden. It consists of the Prime Minister and cabinet ministers appointed by the Prime Minister. The Government is responsible for their actions to the Riksdag, which is the legislative assembly...

 from 1982 until his death. His electoral defeat in 1976
Swedish general election, 1976
Elections to the Swedish Riksdag held September 19, 1976. The result ended in an expected coalition government between the agrarian Centre Party, the Liberal People's Party and the conservative Moderate Party, thus forming Sweden's first non-socialist government since 1936...

 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
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...

 in the Iran-Iraq war
Iran-Iraq War
The Iran–Iraq War was an armed conflict between the armed forces of Iraq and Iran, lasting from September 1980 to August 1988, making it the longest conventional war of the twentieth century...

, he returned to power in the 1982 election
Swedish general election, 1982
Elections to the Swedish Riksdag held 19 September 1982 and saw the return of the Swedish Social Democratic Party to power after six years in opposition, the longest period in opposition by the Social Democrats since the 1910s...

.

A pivotal, renowned, and polarizing figure domestically as well as in international politics since the 1960s
1960s
The 1960s was the decade that started on January 1, 1960, and ended on December 31, 1969. It was the seventh decade of the 20th century.The 1960s term also refers to an era more often called The Sixties, denoting the complex of inter-related cultural and political trends across the globe...

 until his death, Palme held steadfast to traditional Swedish non-alignment
Non-Aligned Movement
The Non-Aligned Movement is a group of states considering themselves not aligned formally with or against any major power bloc. As of 2011, the movement had 120 members and 17 observer countries...

 juxtaposed to vocal, political, and financial support of third world liberation movements following the process of decolonization
Decolonization
Decolonization refers to the undoing of colonialism, the unequal relation of polities whereby one people or nation establishes and maintains dependent Territory over another...

, including, most controversially, several Marxist and totalitarian regimes.
Quotations

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.

 
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