Olof Palme

Olof Palme came from a wealthy Stockholm family, studied at Kenyon College in the United States and became Prime Minister Tage Erlander's secretary in 1953. He entered parliament in 1958 and held ministerial posts, including education, before taking over the party. He succeeded Erlander as party leader and prime minister in 1969, lost power in 1976 and returned in 1982. He became the best-known Swedish politician internationally. He was shot dead in Stockholm in 1986; the case remained unsolved for decades, and in 2020 prosecutors named a suspect who had died.

Supporters remember Palme as a leading voice for social democracy, gender equality, anti-colonialism and disarmament, and his name is carried by an international solidarity center. Critics in Sweden opposed the high tax burden, the expanding bureaucracy and the wage earner funds, which prompted large protests. The tax case that drove filmmaker Ingmar Bergman abroad in 1976 became a symbol of criticism of the tax authorities, and his last term was more moderate as Sweden faced economic difficulties. In the United States, his statements on Vietnam strained relations, and some critics accused him of being too accommodating toward left-wing governments such as Cuba.