Thorbjörn Fälldin
| Thorbjörn Fälldin | |
|---|---|
Fälldin in 1967.
|
|
| 27th Prime Minister of Sweden | |
|
In office 12 October 1979 – 2 October 1982 (2 years, 355 days) |
|
| Monarch | Carl XVI Gustaf |
| Deputy |
Ingemar Mundebo Ola Ullsten |
| Preceded by | Ola Ullsten |
| Succeeded by | Olof Palme |
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In office 8 October 1976 – 18 October 1978 (2 years, 10 days) |
|
| Monarch | Carl XVI Gustaf |
| Deputy |
Per Ahlmark Ingemar Mundebo |
| Preceded by | Olof Palme |
| Succeeded by | Ola Ullsten |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
Nils Olof Thorbjörn Fälldin 24 April 1926 Högsjö, Ångermanland, Sweden |
| Died | 23 July 2016 (aged 90) Högsjö, Ångermanland, Sweden |
| Political party | Centre Party |
| Spouse(s) | Solveig Fälldin |
Nils Olof Thorbjörn Fälldin (24 April 1926 – 23 July 2016) was 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. On his first appointment in 1976, he was the first non-Social Democrat Prime Minister for forty years and the first since the 1930s not to have worked as a professional politician since his teens.
Fälldin was born in Högsjö parish, Ångermanland, the son of the farmer Nils Johan Fälldin and his wife Hulda (née Olsson). He 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 did not approve the purchase, as the farm was considered too small and too run down for production, and so refused to provide farm subsidies. This fight led him into the youth branch of the Swedish agrarian party Farmers' League, which in 1958 changed its name to 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.
Fälldin entered the Swedish national political stage when he was elected to the Swedish Riksdag in 1958 for the agrarian-rooted Centre Party. In competition with Johannes Antonsson, he became first vice-chairman of the party in 1969, and then chairman in 1971, succeeding veteran Gunnar Hedlund. In 1973, Fälldin proposed that the party should merge with the Liberal Party, but he failed to gain the support of a majority of party members.
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), which led to Fälldin's resignation and the formation of a minority Liberal Party government.
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