Thorbjörn Fälldin

Infobox Prime Minister


name = Thorbjörn Fälldin
|caption =
order = Prime Minister of Sweden
monarch = Carl XVI Gustaf
term_start = 8 October 1976
term_end = 18 October 1978
predecessor = Olof Palme
successor = Ola Ullsten
deputy = Per Ahlmark (1976–1978) Ingemar Mundebo (1978)
term_start2 = 12 October 1979
term_end2 = 2 October 1982
predecessor2 = Ola Ullsten
successor2 = Olof Palme
deputy2 = Ingemar Mundebo (1979–1980) Ola Ullsten (1980–1982)
birth_date = birth date and age|1926|04|24|df=y
birth_place = Högsjö, Ångermanland
party = Centre Party
profession = Farmer
spouse = Solveig Fälldin

Nils Olof Thorbjörn Fälldin (born 24 April 1926 in Högsjö, Ångermanland) is a Swedish politician. He was Prime Minister of Sweden in three non-consecutive cabinets from 1976 to 1982, and leader of the Swedish Centre Party from 1971 to 1985. When he became Prime Minister in 1976, he was the first non-Social Democrat on that post for forty years, and the first Swedish Prime Minister since the 1930s who hadn't worked as a professional politician since his teens.

Biography

Thorbjörn Fälldin grew up in a farming family in Ångermanland, and in 1956 he and his wife, as a newlywed young couple took over a small farm. However, the farming authorities would not approve the purchase, as the farm was regarded too small and too run down, and so refused to provide the usual farm subsidies. Fälldin felt deeply humiliated by the treatment and fought the authorities all the way.

This fight led him into the youth branch of the Swedish Agrarian party "Bondeförbundet", which in 1958 changed its name to "Centerpartiet" (the Centre Party). He and his family maintained their farm throughout his political life, and when he resigned from politics in 1985 he immediately returned to it.

Political career

Fälldin entered the Swedish national political stage when he was elected a member of the Swedish "Riksdag" in 1958 for the agrarian-rooted Centre Party. In competition with Johannes Antonsson, he became vice-chairman of the party in 1969, and then chairman in 1971, succeeding long-time veteran Gunnar Hedlund.

In 1973 Fälldin proposed that the party should merge with the Liberal Party, but failed to gain a majority of party members behind the idea.

In the 1976 election, the Social Democrats sensationally lost their majority for the first time in 40 years. The non-Socialist parties (the Centre Party, the Liberal Party and the Conservative Moderate Party) formed a coalition government, and as the Centre Party was the largest of the three, Fälldin was appointed Prime Minister. Two years later, however, the coalition fell apart over the issue of Swedish dependency on nuclear power (with the Centre Party taking a strong anti-nuclear stand), leading to Fälldin's resignation and the formation of a minority Liberal Party government.

Following the election in 1979 Fälldin regained the post of Prime Minister, again forming a coalition government with the Liberals and the Moderates. This cabinet also lasted for two years, until disagreement over tax policies compelled the Moderates to leave the coalition. Fälldin continued as Prime Minister until the election in 1982, when the Social Democrats regained majority.

After a second election defeat in 1985 Fälldin resigned as party leader and politician, and returned to his farm. His honorary posts since that time have included chairman of Föreningsbanken and Televerket.

Legacy

During his 27 years as a national politician Fälldin was generally appreciated in most political camps for his straightforwardness, unpretentiousness and willingness to listen to all views. His two periods as Prime Minister were far from easy; trying to get three very different parties to work together in a coalition, while Sweden underwent its worst recession since the 1930s, while the Social Democrats were furious over having lost the power that they, after 40 years, had come to regard as self-evidently theirs.

Fälldin refused to allow security concerns to rule his life. During his years as Swedish Prime Minister, he lived on his own in a small, rented apartment in central Stockholm, while his family ran the farm up in northern Sweden. He would do his own cooking and carry out the garbage in the morning to the communal dustbins in the backyard, before taking a brisk 15 minute walk to his office, shadowed at a distance by an unmarked police car which had been waiting outside the apartment block - his only concession to the security concerns.

Trivia

* Is related to Swedish-American film actor Warner Oland.